Wedding Crashers

"Character counts most when duty calls."

Serilda didn’t exactly have much exposure or experience with things like jealous exes. She had only ever dated two people in her life. The first she had married and been with for a small handful of years before he’d died, and the other she was currently with. However, her sisters had some issues with previous boyfriends. Because of this, Serilda wasn’t entirely ignorant to the nature of such a problem, but she certainly had never heard of it to this extent.

Supposedly there was a couple in Rose Garden that were set to be married today, but the bride’s former lover was not at all happy with the union. He’d been going out of his way to sabotage the relationship as much as he could, to no avail, even to the point of physical assaulting the groom on a number of occasions. It was to the point where everyone was fairly certain the man was going to try to pull a stunt at the wedding as well, and honestly after reviewing the evidence Serilda was convinced of it as well.

Typically a job like this was one she would just ask a lower ranked Knight to take up, but given the amount of trouble the degenerate had already caused Serilda thought it was best if she just stepped forward herself to be an irrefutable figure of law in the matter. No one deserved to have what should arguably be their happiest day ruined, and after her own recent news regarding the lies of her former marriage the Voidwalker thought it might do her some good to help another couple preserve happy memories about their union that she no longer had of her own.

Thus, she’d donned the dress that her girlfriends from Minstrel had gotten for her a while back. The wedding was formal attire, and she was to be held to that standard as well. The black evening gown was long and a bit on the slinky side, with a slit that ran all the way up her left leg, and long drops on both sides that fully exposed her back and left little to the imagination with her chest. A necklack of rose colored pearls hung down to the gap between her cleavage, and there were matching earrings and a bracelet to accommodate it. This event and the dress code didn’t exactly call for her to wear either of her swords, but she did keep a knife strapped to her thigh. As she had done in Minstrel, her white hair was loose around her shoulders and given enough curl to give it some body.

Her sparkling heels clipped elegantly along the floor as she approached the purple haired woman that seemed to be loitering in the meeting spot. “I apologize,” she said, getting the woman’s attention with a polite apology just in case this wasn’t the woman she was supposed to be working with. “Are you Kessicia?” All Serilda knew was that she was meeting another woman here for the job, but she had no idea what her intended partner looked like so she was just shooting in the dark and hoping for the best.

"Character counts most when duty calls."

The dark skinned woman glanced to her even before Serilda got the chance to inquire to her identity. If Kessicia’s face betrayed any of her inner thoughts at all, the woman didn’t appear to notice. She took a mental stock of the slightly younger woman, committing her appearance to memory as she confirmed that she was, indeed, the person the Voidwalker was looking for. Serilda accepted the handshake without hesitation, returning it with a firm but polite hand. What she had meant by saying she was more than delighted to be the one Serilda was looking for went over the noblewoman’s head, as did most subtle charms or flirtations, but she did give the other woman a small smile.

“Serilda Sinclair, with the Rune Knights.” There was little reason for her to give either her Knight or her noble title. This was a small affair, certainly not something that required any bulk of authority or entitlement to be thrown around. So as with all things, the Voidwalker erred on the side of modesty. “The pleasure is mine. I hope you have not been waiting long.”

She listened as Kessicia expressed her dissatisfaction over the antics of the person they were supposed to be keeping an eye out for, as well as her amusement over the idea of two ladies in full formal attire handling the brutish man. Serilda did smirk a bit at the last comment. “Yes, many men do seem to let their guards down around women in skirts, don’t they? It’s probably uncouth of me to say so, but I’ll admit a part of me is looking forward to humbling him. No one should ever have to deal with this kind of harassment on any given day, let alone at their wedding.”

Serilda shook her head a little, clearly unimpressed with the exboyfriend’s behaviors. “With any luck, he’ll be prompt about his threats so we can take care of this sooner rather than later and relax the rest of the evening. I’d rather not have to loiter about all evening waiting for him to attempt some kind of dramatic entrance.”

As there was little else to do to pass the time, she spent the next half an hour or so chatting idly with her partner for the evening. The ceremony was about ten minutes in when her senses pinged at her, stopping her mid conversation as Serilda turned away slightly and stared into the distance like she had heard or seen something. “I think our guests of honor are heading this way,” the noblewoman informed Kessicia. “There’s a group about eighty meters out or so rushing this direction. Seven of them. Should be here in a minute or so.”

"Character counts most when duty calls."

“I’ve only been to Desierto once, and did not get to do much sight seeing while I was there -- I was on a job request for my former guild. However, I can’t say I recall seeing any cathedrals or other such building there, even from a distance.” Her white brows furrowed a little in thought as she ruminate over her memories from that trip and compared them to what Kessicia was telling her. Everything she could recall lined up with what the darker skinned woman claimed. It was no wonder the purple haired lady was having a bit of culture shock about it. She was glad to hear that Fiore had been treating the woman well.

The woman confessed that her own power wasn’t all that useful for outright confrontation, but rather was more suited for supporting her allies. She seemed to think her place was best served in assisting Serilda rather than being directly involved in any fighting, and that was fine by the Voidwalker. If the exboyfriend had magic, she was certain he wasn’t terribly strong or else he’d have caused a lot more damage by now in his prior opportunities.

There was almost an innocent tone to the woman’s voice when she suggested that Serilda dance with her a bit at the reception. Even though she had not said it with any obvious undertones of suggestiveness, even the noblewoman wasn’t daft enough to realize that it was a flirtation, if a polite one. It caught her slightly off guard for a moment as she took a split second to think back on if she’d ever danced with a woman before, and couldn’t recall any such times.

Still, there was little difference between this moment and any other where men asked her to dance, either with romantic intentions or platonic ones. For the moment Serilda felt that this was more of a platonic suggestion, so there was only a single beat of surprise before she replied with, “As long as you’re comfortable leading. I confess, I’ve never danced with a woman before so I think my talents in guiding the steps would be rather lacking.” There was a hint of amusement in her blue eyes.

When it was finally time to confront the exboyfriend and the apparent group of degenerates he’d brought with him, Kessicia took a moment to give a vague disclaimer about her magic before putting her hand on Serilda’s shoulder -- which she’d find was a bit cold to the touch. On the opposite side of things, however, Serilda felt a wash of warmth roll over her. She felt her pools of magic power pulse and grow more potent, even as her body seemed to feel a bit lighter. Kessicia stepped back once the transfer of power was complete, pulling a small knife seemingly out of thin air and asking if she was ready.

“I believe I am,” she replied with a smile, pulling back the slit on her dress so she could withdraw her own small blade. It was a simple weapon with no magical properties and unremarkable in design, though of exceedingly good quality to those with an eye for such things. Serilda had found that ever since Ozorith had imbued her with the dark lacrima her spells felt more powerful when she channeled them through a weapon of some kind, so she tried to keep one on her whenever possible.

Both women stepped out to meet the incoming group several meters outside the church where the scuffle would not interrupt the ceremony. “Scuffle” was a generous word. Serilda likely could have handled these unfortunate ruffians on her own with little to no trouble, but with the extra power that Kessicia had granted her one could hardly even call it a fight. There was a brief moment of confusion as the group realized that the two beauties were, in fact, there to fight them and prevent them from following through with whatever their plans were. After that, the exboyfriend had ordered his buddies to “deal with the bitches” while he moved ahead to go to the church.

None of them were able to take more than one or two steps before they started choking like they’d suddenly run out of air to breathe. In a flash, Serilda had three of them knocked unconscious to the ground with little more effort than it took to strike them with the flat or pommel of her blade. Three of the remaining four were elemental wizards that attempted to cast magic at them in the form of wind, ice, and fire. The fire wizard had more than a little difficulty even getting any of his magic going, and all three spells were quickly sucked up into the woman’s stomach and consumed in an instant like food.

The mages had stared at her, horrified and confused, and she’d taken their moment of bewilderment to swiftly knock them unconscious as well. By then the only one left was the exboyfriend, who looked more than a little uncertain about his current life choice but seemed determined to stick to the course. Enraged, he dug deep into his magic in an attempt to cast a spell of his own but before he could do so his vision went black and he fell to the ground as Serilda stepped forward quicker than he could process and backhanded him hard enough to knock him out.

“Well, that takes care of that, then,” she said calmly. Pulling out her iLac, she contacted the local branch of Knights and within minutes there was a lacrimobile pulling up to take the would be assailants into custody. Turning to Kessicia with a slightly mischievous smirk, Serilda said, “Well, I think we’ve earned ourselves an evening off, don’t you?”