Shortly after those who took part in the wedding had made it to the Hall of Fire, an Elf Daphne hadn't spoken to before, Seregrian, began to play the harp and sing for the first dance of Anastasiar and Amaken. Their excitement at finally being married showed clearly, as they clapped energetically throughout the song, though it was a soft and sweet song. Daphne found this amusing, of course, but also beautiful. She'd only ever seen weddings in passing after her Pa had died. Being a part of the joy and seeing the love up close was something precious.
As she leaned against a pillar, watching them end the dance, Kildwin tapped her hand. Amaken began making some sort of announcement which she tried listening to, but Kild won out, as she didn't put it past him to give her pushups even at a wedding. Turns out, she wasn't wrong. He'd told her he had a message for her, when in reality he was simply dealing out twenty pushups for missing last Company training. Normally she would push back, but she was feeling generous and didn't want to cause anything stressful to detract from the day. She rolled up her sleeves, tucked her dress between her legs and did the twenty rapidly, which seemed to appease him.
The bride and groom made their way around, thanking people and speaking to them. After a moment, Ana stepped over to Daphne. "Phew, I think I can finally relax a bit now," she'd said with a smile. Daph hugged her tightly. "Congratulations, Mrs. Daradson. You did so well, I told you it'd go fine." As they ended the embrace, Deorla stepped up to present her a wedding gift. It was a beautiful ring. "I know you already have a ring, but who says you can't have another one on a different finger?" Her heart dropped as she realized she hadn't really given them a wedding gift. It wasn't that she hadn't tried to think of one. She simply hadn't known what she could do or give that was befitting a wedding. She hadn't the time to dwell on it, as Ana grabbed her arm with a smile as Deorla walked away. "Daph, come with me to find food." Truthfully, she hadn't eaten anything in the last two days or so. The excitement of the upcoming wedding had caused her stomach to be too unsettled to swallow anything other than water. She hadn't slept much at all either, but she wasn't feeling the effects of that just yet.
Once they got to the table, Amaken pulled his wife away for a private word. Now with no one to watch her, Daphne inched away from the table. "I'll eat later.." She stepped over to where Elthhelm stood and began petting his dog, Ceowulf. She hadn't seen dog nor master in awhile and she was surprised to find she had actually missed them. As they spoke, he earned one of her well known scowls by teasing her about Kild's pushups a moment ago. Then suddenly and unexpectedly, Deorla grabbed him from behind. "Care for a dance?" It was clear she had already been drinking, but Daphne smirked and claimed she would go listen to the music up close while they danced.
As she stepped past, she glanced at Furley, who appeared to be in the middle of business ever since the end of the ceremony. She sighed, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Heavens, does that boy ever stop to celebrate?" Some things never change.
She stood at the pillar which she'd been leaning against before, smiling slightly as she watched the dancing absentmindedly. She'd been right. A wedding was just the sort of joyous occasion the Company needed after all they'd been through recently. Her eyes fell on Elth and De as the danced for a moment, and she smirked. "Hmmm, they look good together." And it was true. She almost hadn't recognized De, dressed in a fine red dress and without an eyepatch. She truly looked lovely. She hadn't seen De look brighter and she was glad they'd rescued her.
As Daph looked around the room, she noted that, really, everyone looked quite nice and appeared to be enjoying themselves. "The boy you left behind in the Mountains isn't enjoying himself.." She tried to push the thought down. She told Furley she'd wait until the day after the wedding to see if the kid showed up, and she'd hold to that. Maybe..maybe he was just hiding. She clenched her fists and rubbed at her forehead.
"Sorry for the interruption earlier, but would the lady like to dance?" She looked up to see Elth standing in front of her again, hand extended. Though Furley had teased her that she owed him a dance, for winning the tournament, she hadn't actually thought anyone would want to dance with her. "Oh I...haven't danced in a long time.." That was true, but what she didn't add was she'd nearly always done the male part of dances when she had, leading her smaller cousins through when nobody else wanted to.
"Between you and me, the music isn't great either, so you'll definitely be fine," he'd said, loud enough where Kildwin, who was playing something that looked like a three-feathered turkey and sounded like ten dying turkeys, could hear. She laughed as Kildwin protested loudly, and set her hand in his. "Alright, I'll try not to step on your toes, then." They danced a few times, spoke, complimented each other's dancing. After he'd asked if she would like to dance again, he pulled her toward the middle of the floor, rather than mostly out of sight and entirely out of the way. She was slightly nervous, but laughed in good nature and stumbled a bit after him.
This time, as Elth spun her around somewhat gracefully, she caught sight of Furley. He was drinking what she assumed to be wine and watching them. "Done with business, but hardly putting the effort into celebrating either. Why is he not dancing with someone too, or talking about something not surrounding business. Ugh." She pulled her mind off of it and smiled at Elth as they continued their dance. She'd forgotten how much fun it was.
After they'd finished, she mentioned she needed a drink. Scarcely had the words left her mouth when a man held out a glass of something to her. She blinked a few times, accepting it politely. She turned around after he stepped away and took a sip as Ana called for everyone's attention. Manners...dictated she shouldn't spit a drink back into the cup, especially considering the man had no way of knowing Daphne's hatred for wine. She used the advantage of everyone being distracted by Ana, and downed the entire wretched glass. She almost controlled her scowl.
"We are going away now, to leave you to a night of food and fun. But before we leave, you were all amazing and we love each and every one of you. We will see you all again soon...but not too soon!" At those words, she winked at her husband as laughs were heard around the room. "Safe travels! May you have many long and happy years together ahead!" Daphne said, as they left the Hall of Fire.
Unfortunately, as the music began again and people resumed in celebration, Daphne realized an error in her actions. She'd had an entire glass of wine on a quite empty stomach. She attempted to stick around, but she suddenly felt so sick she had to flee the room.
When she'd returned a little while later, all guests had left. Except Furley, who was, again, doing business...
