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Dom knows, in the whole of his mind and heart, that Kenna was meant to choose him.
After all, they grew up together. Sparred on that field in front of the castle. She had been everything to him as a child- hells, she was everything to him now. It was because of her that he had broken the bounds of the spirit world and returned home. It is her that he serves, and her that he knows better than anyone. He admires Sei, thinks of her as a friend, and knows that she thinks of him the same way, even though she’d die before admitting it. He found something in Rose, before circumstance had driven him away from her. But Kenna… Kenna is everything. Kenna is his queen, and his purpose, and his closest relationship.
Dom knows, instinctively, that there is another world. One where he isn’t here, one where he isn’t standing in the corner of the grand hall, watching the future of Stormholt unfold in a direction that he understands isn’t his.
He isn’t angry. He’s barely even upset. The happiness in her face as she chooses the one who isn’t him is… perfect. It’s enough.
She approaches him on the ramparts after the ceremony is over, and she reaffirms the same thing she has told him for all of their long adventure: that he is her best friend, and has been, and will be, even unto death.
She smiles, and he smiles back, and loops an arm around her shoulders.
He can live with that. As long as Kenna is happy, he can live with anything.
--
Raydan has watched her from the shadows since he met her. Something new and old at the same time stirred in him then, as it does now; something soft and not unwelcome. He’s known flashes of it before. Some facet, different and the same, of the feeling shines in him for Annelyse, for Adder, for Lia, for all the friends he has discovered.
But Kenna is something else. He’s seen her conquer the world with a diplomatic gaze and a reliable old short sword. She’s not always elegant, but beautiful? She’s so beautiful that the word doesn’t do justice to her.
He knows. He knows that there was another future in the works, one where she accepted his invitation, one where she didn’t laugh sweetly and tell him that friends is exactly what they are. One where he emerged from the shadows to rule at her side, a spymaster turned king.
But that’s not his reality. His reality is one where he accepts her decision with a bitter taste in his smile.
His reality is one where she glides down the aisle to meet someone else.
Even if it isn’t with her, though, Stormholt is more of a home than he’s known before. His home is the adventure she brought him on, the friends she helped him find, the changed world of which she was the dawn.
He has Aurynn. He has Lia, all the way over in Ducitora, and Annelyse, far away in Aurelia. And, in some capacity, he has Kenna.
He’ll get used to it.
--
Annelyse has never been one for hiding her emotions.
When it comes time to tell Kenna that she’s leaving to see her kingdom rebuilt, she would be lying if she said that she wasn’t hoping for the Queen of Stormholt to change her mind, suddenly; to plead with her to stay, even just a bit longer. She would also be lying if she said that she didn’t want Kenna to take this one last moment to sweep her off her feet. Annelyse falls in love easily, and Kenna has made it as easy as breathing.
Watching her dart into battle, watching her take gambles and risks with her life on the line, was torture. It is only now, now that it is over, that she feels like she can breathe again.
But today, her breathing is restricted by something more painful than anything she has felt before. Today, as she smooths the beautiful lace gown that her tailors prepared over Kenna’s bed, she is hard-pressed to prevent a tear or two from escaping her eyes and staining the fabric.
Because this was never how it was supposed to be.
Annelyse can feel a compulsion in her chest, telling her something that she can’t quite comprehend. She understands it, and she understands why it was there. Somewhere, in the past and the present and the future and the realms beyond this dimension, she was the one Kenna approached on that night. She was the one Kenna asked. She was the one Kenna walked to meet in that hall.
Somewhere, there is a world where is both the Queen of Aurelia and the Queen of Stormholt.
But this isn’t that world.
So she pretends that the tears she sheds as she watches Kenna go to meet her betrothed are entirely of happiness. Partly, they are. She’s happy to see her friend, who will only ever be a friend, finding happiness.
Maybe this is selfish.
Either way, nothing can be changed.
Annelyse will find contentment in her people and her dreams.
--
Val knows that she lucked out.
Some world, where she could be a queen. Some crazy, stupid, beautiful world, where she, a mercenary, was permitted to marry a queen.
Honestly, though, she couldn’t care less about the status. For her, all the magic of the day was in the look on Kenna’s face when she came down that aisle, the look of happiness that Val never thought she’d have a chance in sharing.
She’s in love. She’s absolutely, irrevocably in love. And she loves Kenna. And Kenna loves her. It’s enough to drive her crazy, that she got this lucky.
From her position at the front of the hall, waiting for Kenna’s approach, she locks eyes with Dom. Instinctively, an anger rages in her chest, but she calms it as fast as she can. Kenna cares about Dom. No matter what he’s done to her, she doesn’t want him hurt. Even as much as Val hates him, she loves Kenna more.
There’s something in his eyes- an understanding. She nods to him, and searches the crowd for another familiar face.
Raydan’s eyes are shadowed and resigned. The shadow is normal. He always looks like some part of him’s a mystery. The resignation, not so much. He smiles at Val in that enigmatic way of his, and she returns it, letting some of the beaming happiness in her chest out. Then he looks down. The moment of camaraderie is lost.
Then, her eyes meet Annelyse’s, and Val finds herself in the presence of tears. Happy tears, she hopes- presumes- she has no reason to believe that Annelyse would be upset by the wedding. Annelyse lives for this kind of thing. Something about her expression is heavier than Val is used to, but she doesn’t have time to decode it.
Because Kenna is there, next to her, in that dress that steals away Val’s breath.
She’s here.
She chose her.
In that moment of happiness, one that she can barely comprehend, Val is aware of something larger than just this. She knows, for a split instant, that there is a world where none of this happens. Where Kenna kept her as the enamored mercenary, never as her wife. Where Kenna found someone else.
But this is her world. This is the world where everything went right for her.
Val could not be happier.