They were married on a June morning.
Not in the Great Hall with its vaulted ceilings and its history of making individuals feel small. Elowen had been clear about this from the beginning of the planning and Alaric had agreed without the hesitation of someone calculating the political optics of a less grand venue.
They were married in the outer courtyard where the summer festival fire had burned the year before, with the silverwood forest at the citadel's edge providing its quiet green witness and the June sky being the specific shade of blue that only occurred in the north in the brief generous weeks of true summer.
The guest list was honest rather than comprehensive. The people who had been present in the actual story, the real one, not the political one.
Kael stood near the front wit
