Episode 148: Married Life (Eurydice)

Eurydice woke to warm hands pulling her hair away from her face and lips pressed to her temple.

“Want something to eat?” the owner of the lips, her husband, Endymion, asked.

She turned toward him and buried her face beneath his chin, in the warm skin of his chest. “No, but I need something to eat.”

Her body ached from a night without sleep and her mind raced. She was in bed, she was waking up next to, Endymion. Her husband Endymion. She was Mrs. Alandrial, Eurydice Alandrial, Mrs. Endymion Alandrial.

She smiled; he laughed. “Then we need to take at least ten minutes off to care about the project.”

Off, like their honeymoon was a job. Their honeymoon. She kissed him, then sat up. “Yes?” she asked, eager about the project at least. “Are we just outlining the plan today?”

Their entire marriage stemmed from this project: they were partners and they were going to educate villagers on how to repair basic machinery so not only would the machines in question get fixed, but villagers would be more capable of the repairs in the future.

It was the perfect project to show they could help and improve, all in one.

He was smiling and warm now too. Despite the distinct observation that he was excited about the project too, he pulled her back down into his arms. “How much do you want to do? We could pretty much do all of the planning, we have the time.”

“That’s a good idea. Then we just have to focus on doing the project, which will be fun. We can even make some notices for the classes and deliver them to the villages tomorrow or the next day.”

“Tomorrow? It could be fun.”

“Yes.” She kissed him, then rolled off the bed onto her feet. “I’m ready. Food, planning…” She looked at him, his tan skin, crystalline blue eyes, and perfect smile watching her. “Then back here,” she requested and promised in one.

She wanted them to enjoy their time together, their break from school. She wanted it to be a combination of relaxing and exciting, a time when they could get to know everything about each other.

Exciting took a turn when a thudding knock sounded on the door. Just two strikes. “Endymion?”

Endy slipped his shirt on. “Just a minute.”

Since he hadn’t asked the person who they were, she assumed he knew by voice or knock pattern or both. “Who is that?” she asked.

“Konrad. Did you not take intro to combat?”

“I did, but I don’t recognize his voice.” Not out of the blue, but maybe if she thought about it. “What do you think he wants? Nothing big… right?” She watched him pull his socks on, then his shoes, thinking about what a life as an Alandrial meant.

“Am I supposed to take more combat now?” she asked, before he could respond to her other question.

“Not if you don’t want to. I’m like… millionth in line.” He kissed her, his eyes closed before their lips met. She closed hers too. Relief coursed through her.

“I’ll be right back.” He slipped into the hall while she finished brushing her hair and getting ready. She made the bed too, for good measure.

She heard the door open before she finished adjusting the pillow. They’d need a second one, at some point, unless Endy wanted to be her pillow forever. She wouldn’t mind if he agreed to it.

He closed the door and sort of smiled, but he looked a little unsure too. “Change of plans: Do you mind helping out with the festival today?”

“Oh,” was all she could muster. She didn’t have other words yet; it was the last thing she had expected him to say. She wasn’t sure why either, if he was so far down in line. “No,” she replied cautiously. She wanted to know, more than she cared about how they spent their day, if everything was okay. “I don’t. We can still talk plans, hang out. It’ll be fun.” She resolved to smile a little, to be warm and open to this idea. She’d married a prince after all, and really it was a day.

Actually, she was excited about it. She was going to get first hand princess lessons. She was a princess now and she liked the idea of diving into it with a challenge. Anything that came after today, she hoped, would be easy compared to taking on the biggest job without warning or training.

“Is there anything we need to do, or just be around?” she asked.

“Just represent family. No one’s there right now.”

She loved how calm he was, and even if he was somewhat wary his body was back to its neutral, easygoing, state.

“Okay,” she replied. “My first princess task.” She crossed the inches they hadn’t crossed yet and kissed him again. “Do I look okay?”

“Mm,” he hummed against her. He kissed her and hugged her. As they parted his hand slipped into hers. “You look perfect.”

Together, they left the room, hand in hand.

“Is your family okay?” she asked after a few steps. She really wanted them to be okay, she knew family was important. Hers would still be there today she guessed. They would see what she had done with her life, and maybe they would be more inclined to give her younger siblings the chance to go to school at the palace too, seeing that she didn’t waste her opportunity.

“I think so,” Endy replied. “My parents are out of realm and busy, and everyone else has other stuff to do.”

He made it sound like this was normal. If it was, she would have to learn everything about what went on as a one day stand in for the queen. She could do that, it would be fun to learn about ruling.

“This will be fun,” she said aloud, so he could hear what she was thinking.

“You like this kind of thing?”

She wanted to tell him she loved it, but the truth was she didn’t know. She knew he was a prince, but she hadn’t thought about all of the things she might have to do as his wife. They were just things before.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I haven’t done this kind of thing before, but it sounds fun and I want to be helpful.” She stole a glance at him, and his amazing jawline and his perfect hair and the casual smile he had almost all the time.

She liked this stuff enough, but she wished they were back upstairs too.

“Do you like this stuff?” she asked.

“I love it. All the excited people. Plus, no class.”

Perfect segway, because no class now didn’t mean no class ever. “So, our first class,” she said while they walked outside and began weaving through the garden and tables and people.

The festival was amazing. The decorations for the wedding blended in perfectly with the festival decor. She loved it, and she loved how alive the palace felt.

“First class ummm… How things work?”

“We can get a few pieces of common equipment to show them,” she added, building off of his idea. She loved this project, and that Endy was in her life like this, that she was married.

She glowed a little. She knew she should have been embarrassed, especially with classmates they passed looking at them, but she didn’t care for once in her life.

Now that they had that out of the way, she refocused on the festival because this mattered and he loved them and she was going to either love them or find a way to love them.

“So,” she began, looping back around. “You love the festivals. Do you help with other kingdom stuff too?”

“Not really, no. I mean, I’ve trained for battle, but that’s about it.”

Her mind drifted to a very unlikely scene of him, shirtless, sword in hand, dripping in sweat underneath the Dells sky, pushing back his training partner.

“How much have you trained?” she asked. Which translated roughly to how skilled should your imaginary opponent be, but she wasn’t going to admit to that.

Maybe she could be his opponent someday. She was his princess-wife and she married a prince. Today was the day she faced the reality of that, starting with their day job and moving on to some serious decisions.

“I want to be useful, not someone you have to worry about all the time,” she declared, before he could answer the other question. She felt kind of bad for adding more, but… she also sounded less oggly.

“Do you like sword fighting? You can’t get hurt permanently, now.”

She had flashbacks to their mandatory sword training class the first year of school. The beginning of the term had been horrible. She’d almost cut an arm off, and she’d almost cried about it, except it was a stick not a sword. It was horrifying. She’d stayed late and trained in her room with sticks until she was one of the top in her class by the end of the term. Then, she’d never touched a sword again.

“I thought it was fun,” she mused. “And I was pretty good at it. I wouldn’t mind learning more.”

His eyes lit up and she felt sparks tickling her hand. “Really?” Do you want to train when we’re free?”

Hello gorgeous chest. Yes.

“Before or after the project stuff?”

If it was before, they’d never do the project stuff.

He turned to her, his hands holding hers, and his eyebrows raised as his grinned, “During.”

He was too hot. She was going to suck at swordfighting, day one all over again.

No, she was not going to suck. She was not going to let him take of his shirt or turn her mind into goo. She was his wife, and she was going to do this. If she could sword fight with him, no one else could ever get to her mentally. She would be solid, focus wise.

“Okay,” she tried to say casually. She kissed him, just barely, and then let go of his hands. “Can we do any of the activities while we’re here or should we just be walking around?”

She looked at some tables, then saw Danija kissing… lip to lip k-i-s-s-i-n-g a guy. Where was Phemia.

“What’s wrong?” Endy asked.

Oh, she had stopped walking.

“That’s my sister. Do you know who that guy is?”

They were going to be newlyweds together and someday they could have babies around the same time and it was going to be the best bonding experience.

She needed to slow down. Danija didn’t even visit her.

“No idea,” Endy said at first. “Oh,” he looked at the guy again, who was blonde with sort of floppy hair and wide eyes, tan skin, and a kind of thin smile that looked panicked.

Maybe they would not get married.

“I think he’s my cousin, from Keshmar,” Endy added.

“I wonder how she knows him,” Eury thought. Danija had been on the coast, to the West, not in Keshmar.

She tried to shrug it off, because the guy looked perplexed and she didn’t want to draw more attention to them, incase Danija needed to just vanish into nothingness. She knew the feeling.

“Class one: how things work. Class two: how to repair cracks in metal? Fire fairies would have the easiest time with that, but we should have a technique for others.”

“Ooh, that’s a really good idea,” he replied. Endy took his eyes off of them too, and they kept walking hand in hand.

She squeezed his hand and smiled. “I’m really glad we were partnered.”

“Me too.” He glanced back. “How many siblings do you have? Just her?”

Now that was a fun question. Her parents liked to breed. She didn’t want that many kids, she wanted to savor each one. She had never felt special, in fact she hadn’t seen them in years. She wanted her someday, not now, kids to feel like they mattered.

Someday, as in when she had time to make sure they felt like they mattered. Maybe in a few centuries.

Endy had asked how many kids her parents had though. She tried to remember how many had come to the wedding and how many she knew weren’t there.

“Like.. thirty one. Or so. I tried to count the other night, but I don’t know if they all made it.”

“Are you close to her?” he asked. “Do you want to talk?”

“Not really close.” She looked at Danija again, who was excited looking and walking with the guy. The Keshmari cousin. “She seems a bit busy, but maybe if we see her later?”

Not really close now didn’t mean someday, and she had to handle this. Whatever was going on, probably a bond, she would have time to talk to Danija later.

“Okay,” Endy said. “That works. So which table do you want to clean and socialize at first?”

She pointed to one where a few plates had been left and some kids had spilled copious amounts of glitter everywhere. Cleaning glitter would mean getting covered in glitter which might end in a water fight or something later. That, she hoped, would be fun for him.

He led her to the table, stopped, and kissed her.

She wanted more.

“Works,” he said.

Yeah, he worked for her.

She got to work, but she was still torn between wanting to know if Danija was okay and wanting to respect her space.

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