Time began to pass quickly as the entire village became active with preparation for mine and Arya's wedding ceremony. I was in a tailor's workshop with three Elven tailors as we worked on making dresses for both me and Arya. Well, it was more that I was supervising the other three as they made Arya's while I worked on mine alone, Thread manipulation allowed me to do the work of three skilled tailors by myself and it was only in this way that we'd be able to bring the designs I'd created in time.

Thankfully there wasn't anything like a standardized type of wedding dress in this world so I was free to go wild with my designs. Arya's was a long modest white and gold shoulderless dress along with a hooded shawl that was veiled. Mine on the other hand was a tight black and violet backless dress with plenty of sheer material that let me reveal skin while still staying somewhat modest, along with a veiled shawl much like the one for Arya. Part of the reason I'd chosen both the color scheme and dress type was that I thought it would be fun to play into the whole Yin and Yang aspect. It just so happened that gold and violet were complementary allowing the two dresses to be equally appreciable.

At the end of the first week we finally got a response from Alcrem, something that filled me with tension as I sat with the letter sealed with the Phoenix crest of the Eldur house. Regardless of his answer I didn't plan on changing anything, I just hoped that he would be more reasonable than he had been in the past though I felt I was expecting too much. I took a deep breath as I broke the seal and pulled out the letter, Alcrem's clean and precise writing a familiar sight to me as I began to read his response.

"My Dearest Daughter Vell,
It pains me greatly that you are so unwilling to listen to my advice, I only was doing what I thought was best for you. However, perhaps you had better judgement than I thought, I recently learned that the church of Iustitia is planning on sending the Hero back to where he came from. He had greatly abused his station and power and it appears that the Goddess is going to personally take responsibility for his crimes.

As for a dowry, I cannot provide the Phoenix's feather, it is far more precious than something I'd be willing to part with as just a gift, however, I have taken the liberty of sending an appropriate offering and I hope it arrives before your special day. It saddens me that I am too busy with the land to come and personally visit, but the monsters in the Forest of Darkness have been making strange movements and it requires my full attention.

On another note, since the Hero is no longer attending the school I have decided to unenlist you and your sisters, though by the time I had, you had already dropped out. It doesn't matter at this point however, and I hope that you and your partner come visit once the ceremony is over so that we can celebrate as a family.

Your Loving Father Alcrem"

I had to reread the letter a few times to make sure that I wasn't imagining the contents. Not only had Alcrem admitted his mistake but also included information about what was going to happen to the Hero. It was a shame about the feather, but hearing that he was sending something was a small comfort, though I couldn't understand what game he was playing. With how detailed his information was, I doubted he didn't know about the Hero's behavior, and yet he had insisted on breaking me and Arya up to try and pair us.

Overall it was a net loss at this point, where before he had held the upper hand and was able to squeeze as many benefits as he wanted, now it was probably only the Yin-Yang Clan that was getting benefits, unless me and Arya died in the Well of Balance, then it would all be moot. I showed the letter to both Kavir and Ilya who were also surprised at his easy surrender and disappointed that they would no longer be able to acquire the feather from him.

When Ilya saw mention of a dowry being sent her eyes lit up and I could tell that the wedding plans were going to become even more over the top. While somewhat exasperated with her enthusiasm, it filled me with warmth to see the two of them and how they interacted with both me and Arya. While it had taken Ilya and Arya a few days to get over the awkwardness of not having interacted for over a decade, they quickly became close once they had, and more than once I found them chatting away about all manner of things.

Despite the frenzy of activity, the warmth and comfort I experienced in the village made me not want to leave, and if it weren't for the fact that I needed to head into the Forest of Darkness to ensure Arya would live, I might have just brought Marian and Reine and lived in peace until I was able to deal with the Outsiders, of course, I might not actually mind living out my life peacefully and having my soul erased. Of the lives I remembered, each one was filled with hardship and unfortunate events. In this life, besides my strange and unusual birth circumstances and the other few troubles I had to deal with, this life had actually been quite nice so far, then again, so had Velen's in the beginning.

The frenzy of preparation continued up until the planned date. Just as Alcrem had said in his letter, a carriage with a dowry arrived the day before and it was extravagant to say the least. On top of just straight up money, there was all manner of jewels, and even valuable pieces of monsters that could be used to make potions and equipment. I was pretty sure I saw some art pieces as well and art in this world was extremely valuable since most pieces were one-of-a-kind. The fact that this was worth less to Alcrem than a single feather really spoke volumes of how much he'd wanted me to be with the Hero.

Soon the day was over and I found myself in a separate room from Arya, Elvish tradition forbade us from sleeping together the night before, a strange tradition considering me and Arya had slept together most of the days beforehand, but it wasn't something I was going to argue with Ilya over, her zeal was unmatched when it came to the wedding and its traditions, plus it was only one night, it wasn't like it was going to kill either of us to not be next to each other while sleeping, though it did feel a bit lonely.

I soon found myself waking up to rays of sunlight streaming through the window into the room. Today was the day. I could only hope that no strange incidents would interrupt us.