Herald of Steel

Alexander met with the various guests, exchanging pleasantries and receiving various gifts after the feast ended.

These were usually wrapped with fine linen or inside beautifully craved wooden boxes and ranged from various pieces of ornate pottery to many types of gemstone, and jewelry for both him and Cambyses, fine clothes of all types, various drinks such as wine of many flavors, and even a beautiful fowl from Grahtos.

Among the presents, the merchants that Heliptos and Camius had invented tried to suck up to Alexander the most, presenting him with many expensive gifts just for the chance to get some exclusive trading rights.

One gift from a merchant that particularly moved Alexander’s wife was a pair of shoes, painted bright red and made of bronze, it was ornately decorated with gold and silver, and studded with glass beads.

Cambyses loved anything red and this beautiful, fashionable shoe really tickled the young girl’s heart.

Alexander thanked all the merchants for their gifts and then promised to meet them the day after tomorrow to officially discuss business, thus letting others pay their compliments to the couple.

“My lord, my father sends you the best wool in all of Adhania,” Mikaya presented Alexander with some rolls of wool that came from a breed of sheep native to Matrak.

Reportedly it had the softest feel out of all the wool in the world.

And Seelima presented Alexander with some fresh legummum on behalf of Ptolomy. .𝘤𝘰𝑚

In this way, the relatively small number of guests said their congratulations and this part of the ceremony was concluded relatively soon, just before dusk.

Once all the gifts had been collected, and as the approaching dusk made the staff light large torches in the background, Alexander got up from his chair to say, “Esteemed guests, the wedding festivities are almost drawing their conclusion. But we still have two more surprises in store for you. Please…”

As Alexander said so, he gestured to a large trolley being pushed toward himself, hosting the wedding cake, and lit with small beautiful candles.

The cake was made the same way the pudding was made, with each of the layers being steamed in airtight vessels, the filling made of alternate layers of strawberry and lemon curd, then decorated with cream, frosting, and seasonal fruits such as grapes and cherries.

The crowd was both a bit awe-struck and confused seeing this huge tower of concentric circles decorated with candles, and some even wondered how anyone single person would be able to eat such a thing if it was at all a thing that would be eaten.

The way the huge tower was illuminated by its own candles, and shaded by the dim orange glow of the just set sun was a sight to behold, and one of the reasons Alexander had decided to hold off on cutting the cut until dusk.

“Honored guest, this is a new kind of dessert called the wedding cake.” Alexander introduced,

“It is something that my chefs made, and it is said that blowing out the eleven candles and then eating it at a wedding will bring good luck.”

With this said, he and Cambyses approached the cake that reached their forehead and one by one blew out the many candles, before taking a knife with both their hands and cutting the cake with the words, “May the gods bless us.”

“May the gods bless you,” The crowd cheered along, and clapped as Alexander fed a small bit of the cake to Cambyses and Cambyses did the same.

As this ceremony was finished, and the large trolley was wheeled away to give the waiters to cut and serve the cake, Alexander bought out his last round of festivities.

He said raising his index finger, “Now, ladies and gentlemen, we have one last round of surprise for you. A surprise that will enable you to send handwritten messages to the gods!”

This bold claim naturally drew many curious and some even questionable looks, the latter especially form the more religious ones like Menicus.

‘How can a mere mortal send greetings to the gods?’ They all asked themselves.

And Alexander soon answered, as he was handed a folded piece of sky lantern, and some quill and ink, with which he gently wrote, ‘Everlasting peace and prosperity to all of Zanzan’ onto the paper.

“This is called a ‘Fanuush’. It is made from paper which I’m sure many of already see. And now, it will allow us to send our words directly to the gods.” Alexander declared while unfolding the lantern with Cambyses’s help, and then lit the little amount of wax underneath the hollow cylinder.

As the fire caught on and burned brightly around the wick, it gave the formally dim lantern a fantastic, red glow, and made it appear fantastic, almost hypnotic to the crowd.

To some in the distance, it even appeared like the Pasha was holding a magical, flaming ball, which was gently swinging in the breeze.

Alexander and Cambyses held the lantern for some time, letting the inside fill up with sufficient hot air, before finally releasing the lantern.

And as the lantern wobbled and wiggled, but still soared up into the sky, there was a huge, almost defeating cheer from the crowd.

Launching things into the sky had always been a great wish of men, and so seeing the small, glowing dot slowly rise up into the night sky, higher and higher, into the heavens until it became almost one with the stars was a profound, almost spiritual moment for many.

They felt that regardless of all the other new things, regardless of even the so-called ‘sugar’, just this spectacle alone would have been enough to make them remember this fantastic wedding for a long, long time.

And the best thing was that it was still not over.

“We have also arranged so that the guest may be able to fly like ‘fanuush’ if they so desire.” Alexander gestured as stacks of the stuff were carried into the garden by trolleys, accompanied by many quills and ink pots.

Though he also quickly added, “But I would also like to urge everyone to be careful and listen to the guides around the garden. Since it involves fire, and all of us are wearing such fancy clothes, we should take the proper precautions and try and avoid any accidents.”

Alexander was afraid given how many layers of clothes both men and women wore, and how voluminous and spread out many of the costumes were, a slight carelessness would lead to a part of the cloth catching fire without even them noticing.

And hence, he assigned a large of soldiers who would not only keep an eye out for this kind of thing but also help out with setting the lanterns.

They would even coordinate when to launch the lanterns so that too many were not launched at the same time, and collisions could be avoided.

“Yes, Your Grace. Please keep holding it like that until you feel the lantern wanting to fly away,” One of these ‘soldiers’ were seen instructing Mikaya and Tafia, both of whom had large smiles on their face as they gazed at the sky lantern getting brighter and brighter, until finally at the word of the guide, they let go, and watched with glee and anticipation as the lantern slowly but surely high up.

This event was repeated all throughout the garden, as dozens after dozens of this festive lantern were launched into the sky, with writings ranging from personal wishes to well-wishing Alexander and Zanzan, to even wishing for world peace, until the sky around the Temple seemed to have many extra, much brighter stars around them.

And each round of ‘fanuush’ release was always accompanied by cheers and whistles, as to the people, these successful releases meant a chance for the gods to read their personal letters.

And where there were successes, there would always be failures, and these included the lanterns most commonly just not rising up, some being blown off course by the breeze and colliding with other lanterns, some having their flames go out and in some instances, due to improper holding of the lantern, one side of the lantern would slant and the paper would simply catch fire.

But fortunately, Alexander had a lot of men looking out for these accidents and even had buckets of water on the side, so all potential sources of fire were stomped out before any major accident could happen.

These failures would of course cause some heartbreak for the people involved, but there were a lot of new lanterns nearby and sometimes these failures would be the sources of some of the most fun parts of the experience.

The crowd would hold their breath and even cheer on a flattering lantern, urging it to rise up as if it was sentient.

And many would also rejoice seeing their lanterns keep on going even after colliding.

While others would see elation turn to disappointment when their lanterns would catch fire midflight.

This was certainly the most fun part of the wedding, even better than the feast in many’s eyes, as rounds and rounds of the sky lanterns were released into the night sky.

And soon, the nobles began to notice that there were many more sky lanterns being released all around them, coming from all over the city.

Alexander had distributed these lanterns to many of the populace and instructed them to start launching them after dusk, and finally, they were beginning to become visible all over the wintery sky, turning the pitch black cold sky into a warm hearth carrying messages for the gods.