Page 8 of I Dated a Retired Hero

The young woman smiled. “The flowers are here. So, as you come out, you will be bedecked.”

Xeva smiled. “Me first.”

She kissed Nelith’s cheek. “See you on the battlefield, sis.”

Nelith grinned.

They waited, and then, Xeva beckoned for Litha to come out, and as she stepped into the light, she felt a coronet of wide, soft petals land on her, another on her neck, wrist, and ankle. Nelith came out last, and she was covered in brilliant blue flowers in a heavy collar of sweetly scented petals.

Nelith smiled. “So, one day only.”

Litha laughed. “One day only.”

Music had started, and Xeva began a stately walk with a bouquet. Litha took Nelith’s hand, and when the niece nodded, they started their slow walk up to the promontory.

There were many of Dmitri’s people and tons of Xeva’s and Nelith’s. The similar features made her smile, but there was one missing. Litha knew one of Nelith’s descendants, and she wasn’t here.

She looked around, and the leaves shifted in a tree. Oh, there she was.

Litha smiled, and they walked up to where Dmitri had his hair flowing loose and was wearing a sarong around his hips. When he saw his bride, he smiled slowly, his serious devotion to her filling his posture. When his face began flowing through the six beings that inhabited his body, Litha smiled. “Good thing they only emerge one at a time.”

Nelith softly muttered, “Yeah, but they line up.”

They softly giggled as they walked to the top, where the chief of the island was waiting to conduct the ceremony.

Litha handed her off to Dmitri, inclining her head, and he looked at her as if trying to place her.

She stepped back, and Xeva directed her to a seat in the front row.

The officiant smiled. “Before the vows, I have been asked to ask the following questions. Who gives this woman to this man?”

The rows of descendants stood up. “We do.”

The officiant smiled and asked, “And who will avenge her if she falls?”

Litha stood and said, “I will.”

Nelith smiled, and Litha sat down again.

Dmitri leaned toward his bride and whispered, she whispered back, and he stood straight with a snap.

Nelith chuckled and patted his chest. The rest of the event went off without any diversion.

Litha sat with some of Xeva’s siblings, eating and smiling and chatting. She felt gazes from the groom’s side but socialized with the women who were her age and younger.

One of Xeva’s soon-to-be brothers-in-law came to her with a package with a familiar figure. “Ma’am, are you really Plasma?”

“Yes, I really am.”

He held out the box with a marker. “Would you sign this?”

“Won’t that wreck the value?”

“No, I keep the collection because actives who defend our world are something I aspire to be.”

“Wow. That is unexpected. Sure. Hand me the figure. I don’t need the marker.”

She carefully turned the box over, carefully signed in fire, and then covered the signature with her hand to put it out.

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