Wedding Planning

Now it was Vladimir’s turn to be shell shocked. His face lit up like a ripe tomato and he held his hands over his mouth as if this was his first kiss.

“M-Married? Now?” Vladimir asked.

“Yes.”

“Now, so you mean…like right here?”

“Right here, right now. Vivian? Diane?”

"Fine with me," Vivian shrugged.

“I'm way ahead of you two,” Diane grinned, “I’ve heard enough of these freaks for several lifetimes.”

At that moment, I still hadn’t figured out why Cynthia Dimoski hadn’t tried to reduce anyone to a pile of ash and why nobody seemed to be threatened by her presence. Was I crazy? Why wasn’t anyone concerned about Lady Static Shock?

As fate would have it, Lady Dimoski shared my exact thoughts. The lightning pulsating around her hands spun wildly out of control and she eyed the Greymoors with rage and contempt.

“You intrude onto my premises,” she seethed, “And now you dare to insult me like this?”

She thrust her hands forward and tendrils of lightning leapt from her fingertips like a pack of wild erratic animals. But each strand of lightning evaporated as quickly as they left the safety of Lady Dimoski’s hands. The static aura in the room dissipated and Cynthia stared at her own wrinkled fingers in bewilderment.

“What’s wrong with my circuitry?” Cynthia asked, her eyes narrowing at Vladimir, “What did you do?”

“If you paid any attention to me at all, mother,” Vladimir sighed, “You would’ve known that I’m one of the most respected magic scholars in the empire, and that I specialize in magical countermeasures. You didn’t seriously think you stood a chance, did you?”

“You’ll never get your hands on the Caxton,” Mathias screeched, “We’ll never talk.”

“Uncle,” Vladimir chuckled and shook his head, “I asked as a mere formality. I can find both of those things without either of your help. But my fiance has asked that we marry first, so we’ll find what we need and be on our way afterwards.”

“And do you think we’ll simply let you ransack the house?” Mathias’s face was even puffier than usual.

“You don’t have a choice,” Vladimir shrugged and made for the door, hand in hand with Stefan, “Diane? Come join us afterwards?”

“With pleasure,” Diane grinned.

Both Mathias and Cynthia’s bodies snapped to attention at the click of Diane’s fingers. Panic overwhelmed their eyes and they watched their bodies float into the air, then contort into unnatural angles and positions until they had assumed the forms of muddy green frogs. Diane walked up to these frogs and smiled at Mathias’s sons, whose faces were painted with fear.

“Maxwell. Parzival,” Diane cooed, “Doesn’t this look familiar? Now, I’ve enchanted this room with a lock, and the key to leaving is figuring out how to unwind the transfiguration enchantment I’ve placed on your auntie and father. Have fun, you two.”

“You’re just going to let her do this to us?” one of the sons screamed at Vivian and her parents.

That thought had occurred to me too, but the Greymoor family seemed to have silently already come to an agreement on this. John and Vivian Greymoor both left the living room together without another word, along with Emily and Diane holding Guin Veridian by the hand. Even Eleanor Greymoor, whose sole personality trait was upholding the decorum of the aristocracy, marched out of the room, leaving only a pair of terrified sons arguing about whether Diane’s first magical formula contained seventeen different traps.

“We’re going to turn into frogs again!” one of them wailed.

Meanwhile, everyone assembled in the banquet room of the estate. Like much of the other abandoned rooms, the hall stood dilapidated and on the verge of ruin. Even parts of the roof had caved in and created splintered skylights.

“Never thought I’d get married at home,” Vladimir murmured, “Much less when it looks like this.”

“Oh it just needs a little makeover,” Stefan snorted, “Father and I will move all the crummy benches out of the way, and Emily, could you select maybe a handful of the better looking seats and bring them to the front of the hall? Mother will shuffle through the pantry and see what we can do about food and refreshments. Diane, do something about the roof?”

“Yes, yes, have the enchantress do all the hard work,” Diane rolled her eyes.

“Excuse me, for a moment,” Guin Veridian raised her hand, asking to speak, “I’m sorry, I haven’t known the Greymoors for very long, and I don’t mean to impose, but is it really alright to leave the Dimoski family locked up as frogs? It seems to me that there must have been a more civil resolution to all of this.”

This was perhaps the most reasonable question of the day. But the Greymoor family shared a few knowing smiles amongst one another. John stepped forward and laid a reassuring hand on Guin’s shoulders.

“We don’t really expect you to agree with how we do things,” John said, “But for the better half of this morning, we tolerated a family who insulted and then threatened to hurt one of our own, someone who is marrying my son. Bigotry has no place in the Greymoor estate, my dear Miss Veridian.”

“I suppose so,” Guin bowed, “My apologies for understating the Dimoski family’s offense.”

“History will someday reflect that the Greymoors acted admirably today,” Diane yawned, “Guin, follow me, my dear. You follow these people around for too long, you’ll also start believing in things society isn’t ready for yet.”

“What should I do?” Vivian asked.

“Well, Viv, I think you should be the one to give us our rings,” Stefan fished into his coat jacket and produced two miniature boxes.

“You don’t keep those on you at all times,” Vladimir laughed.

“Do too,” Stefan grinned, “Always looking for the right time.”

“We’re going to be busy for the next hour setting things up,” Vladimir explained, “Vivian, there’s a room on the east wing of the estate that I want you to take a look at first. It’s my father’s old study.”

“We can look for it later, Vladdy.” Stefan groaned.

“It’s just a small detour,” Vladimir said, “My father kept my birth certificate in one of the drawers on his desk.”

“Easy enough,” Vivian nodded. “And what about the Caxton Manuscript?”

“Let Emily and I handle that.”

The Greymoors dispersed to their designated tasks, and Vivian left the banquet hall in search of Vladimir’s father’s study.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, bracelet,” Vivian said, “You know I haven’t been back to the estate in years. Dreadful as it is now, I have good memories of this place.”

I cherished these times with Vivian, because I could always rely on her to fill in missing details that I didn’t know. She was very accommodating in this regard. As we passed by dated tapestries and broken windows, Vivian shared these experiences to pass the time, but she spoke with the tenderness of someone she held very dear.

“So this is Vladimir’s grandfather,” Vivian would point at one of the paintings, “He was an honorable man. Fought and died in the last war. Vladimir’s grandmother was never the same after that.”

“This courtyard used to be so beautiful too,” she would sigh through shattered glass, “Vladimir tried teaching me magic here. Don’t laugh at me, but he set my hair on fire.”

At the end of a long hallway in the east wing was a broad doorway larger than the other rooms. Inside, one could see fallen bookshelves and overturned tables. An open window brought in the breeze from the outside, shuffling and mingling torn pages from different books together.

“Looks like we’re here,” Vivian murmured, “Be on the lookout. Let me know if you see anything.”

At first, I didn’t really know what Vivian expected of me. I was a glorified text menu, not a compass. But then I remembered that the navigation tools on Vivian's page possessed directional arrows that she could press to scroll up and down or sideways across her screen. And so, while I didn’t think that I would be of much help, I quickly compiled several new screens, fitted with directional arrows in case Vivian needed it.

Inside the study, Vladimir’s father’s desk was quite possibly the easiest object to spot in the room. It was one of the only things that hadn’t been flipped on its side, but its construction and attention to detail were also nothing but pristine. The drawers were fitted with rustic gold handlebars. Cedars and magnolias were chiseled around the desk apron. The tabletop itself carried an insignia featuring an eagle with three arrows clutched in its talons.

“Well, that was easy,” Vivian whistled, “Okay, one of the drawers.”

Finding the certificate was as easy as shuffling through the first couple of drawers. Vladimir’s father left very few items in the desk, including a handful of old pens and a small leather travel journal. The certificate itself was a rolled up piece of paper on the bottom drawer and Vivian unrolled it to confirm the name and birth year.

“Right, this name needs to be changed,” Vivian rolled the certificate closed, “Alright, let’s head back.”

When we reached the threshold of the study, however, a pulse of energy reached my senses. It felt like a numbing electrical current and it thumped like a steady heartbeat.

Something about it felt familiar.

“What is it, my bracelet? What’s wrong? What’s with all blinking?”

Something about it felt ominous.

From deep within a closet at the back of the study, I followed the sound, as if I was a sailor drawn by a lullaby. The thumping grew louder and the numbing sensations became feelings of paralysis.

“What’s happening!”

Vivian’s frightened voice was the last thing I heard before the heartbeats pulled me out of the world.