If Chenzhou hadn't been brutally honest about his reasons for this marriage, Eirian imagines a lesser woman would be confused.
"As long as he's titled Second Husband. I may not have achieved much in my life, but at least I married you first."
"She is educated, she is powerful, she is intelligent."
"Anything you discuss with me, you can discuss with her."
"My wife shares my authority."
"The only woman in this kingdom of more value than her is the Queen herself."
"It seemed a fair price, given your education and skills."
Forty pounds of gold, Eirian thinks.
More than Queen Helia's bride price.
More than the Restitutions paid by Antiquity after Sorrow defeated them in the War for the Rhiannon Forest.
More than the treasures lost during the Burning of the White City in the Age of Warfare and that had included the history of several long-dead kingdoms.
Forty pounds of gold for a woman he doesn't even want to touch.
Forty pounds of gold, an entire kingdom's fortune, to save his people and not one ounce of regret about it.
Utterly in love with another woman, and yet he spoke of Eirian with more admiration than Philip ever had.
Three days, and he treated her better than any love letter she'd ever received had promised.
How did such a horrible start see her married to such a decent man? There were endless horror stories in the capital of arranged marriages that ended in coffins. Of years of resentment, hatred, cheating, and all manner of mind games attempting to dimmish one or both halves of the relationship. Marriage contracts have become more common, while arranged marriages have fallen out of favor with all but the highest levels of society, and even then, it's not what it was hundreds of years ago.
Some of the cultures in the Wasteland have arranged marriages similar to Sorrow and Antiquity, but they go about it differently. Family interviews followed by a series of chaperoned dates before they're allowed out on their own. It's more of an arranged relationship in most cases, and it's not uncommon to go through two or three before actually marrying.
The lands west of the Spine of the World didn't follow any kind of marriage customs. People just ran into one another one day and decided to give it a go. Families didn't usually get involved until later in the relationship.
To be honest, Eirian's not sure who's got the best idea. There's something to be said about taking away any chance at second-guessing yourself. Removing any easy way out of a difficult situation. But there's also something to be said for having the people who know you best help, provided they do actually know you best. Let them help build a solid foundation so that things don't shake so badly later on.
And there's something to be said for chance.
That's the magical one.
Uncontrollable.
Illogical.
Ridiculous.
Rapturous.
Because what was more incredible than discovering someone new or anew by yourself? Watching a new stem shoot up and bud and blossom and being the only its petals unfurl for? A beauty you caused all by yourself? Something to be said for learning to stand on your own two feet and learning to balance with another. To grow together without the weight of others shaping you.
To give yourself over to the power of chance or fate or destiny or whatever you wanted to call it and find something so incredible your life would never be the same.
Would never be lonely again.
That was what Eirian had dreamed of in her more fanciful moments, when she could convince herself just for a few seconds that her birth luck, her station, her responsibilities didn't have to be considered, and she could love whoever she wanted to. That it wouldn't be so hard to find a suitable partner because her life was just that simple.
But nothing about Eirian is simple. She's long accepted that fact and unlike her morbid teenage years, she's come to embrace it. She likes being complicated and powerful and responsible for things.
She'd even thought she'd found a man that actually matched her in all of it.
Except it turned out he'd rather match someone else, and she's not nearly ready to forgive and forget that.
Somehow, despite it not being the man she thought she preferred or the method of marriage she really wanted, it's starting to sink in that Eirian might have gotten lucky regardless.
There are no ends to the horrors she could have married and while he'll never love her, his heart was given away long before she arrived so it's not like she lost the battle or anything, he's made it pretty damn clear he respects her.
She probably could have loved him, she realizes. With his oddly gentle eyes and his hair the color of the midnight sky. He's probably startlingly attractive when he's not dying from a generations-long poisoning. He's probably strong enough to be a challenge on the field, provided she didn't use her magic, and probably brilliant enough when his mind wasn't addled to challenge her over a chess board.
He was proud of her, and he didn't even know her.
Eirian's pretty sure the only other person in her life who's been proud of her is Eric and they're proud of one another, partially because they're so alike and partially because it was them against the world and neither of them liked to lose.
If they didn't share blood, if they hadn't grown up as siblings, she and Eric would probably have married as soon as they were old enough, but that's not this life.
In this life, Ye Chenzhou appeared like a lightning strike. An apparition clinging to the world long enough to find Eirian and turn her world upside down.
It's only been three days. Eirian will probably be a widow for their third wedding anniversary, and yet, she suddenly finds the idea of losing him as a partner horrifying.
Which is saying something, since she was fully prepared to murder him in their wedding bed.
~ tbc