Part III, Chapter Two: Maru Chooses a Color

Part III: Zhian

"Pettiness is one of those rare ailments that takes a greater toll on the health of the uninfected." --Tasian journalist, c. 1090 AE

April 15, 1112 AE
Shiromori Castle, Ayumora, Shiromori

The other three were too excited to pay Maru much notice, but it seemed that even talk of a wedding could not bring relief from Kihara's ever-vigilant judgment. "You know, Maru, most women like to have some say in their own wedding plans."

How shallow her companions were. They didn't even realize that they had been molded to fit a society so rigid and superficial that even the most over-zealous of folk must have had more than a few conscious restraints--or if they did, they didn't seem to mind. Why was she still friends with such people? Perhaps she had grown too numb to even bother telling them otherwise; it seemed the only logical reason at this point.

"They're not my plans," she corrected the other woman as she turned away from the window. "They're my father's plans. You can't honestly believe that I'd be marrying this man if I had any say in it myself, can you?"

Kihara sniffed--she did that a little too often for Maru's taste. "Why not? Yes, he's not much to look at, but he's the heir to a sovereign state, meaning that once both of you ascend to your respective positions, you'll have a small empire."

"But is a small empire worth the cost of a hellish marriage?"

"Oh, marriage isn't quite so bad as you might think," Akiko tried to assure her. "If it's the sex you're worried about, it's not as if it isn't tolerable. It's a bit of a bother, yes, but it's not really any more of a hassle than any other chore."

They thought it was the sex that was the source of her apprehension? She wondered how they might react if she told them she'd actually had sex before--and that she enjoyed it. A few years prior, she would have done exactly that, just to see them squeal, but even that prospect seemed hollow to her now. Somewhere down the road, she had forgotten how to feel. "Akiko, the sex is a detail; it's just that Taios is probably the last man on the planet I'd care to spend my life with."

Miya sighed. "Maru, it isn't as if there's much variation within the male species to begin with; marrying Taios will be pretty much exactly like marrying anyone else."

There were so many things wrong with that comment that she decided to dismiss it as pure madness and deny it a proper reply. "It's the principle of the thing."

"Well, at least choose the color for the wedding, if nothing else," insisted Kihara. "Pink? Sky blue? Perhaps a soft yellow?"

Maru's lip curled inward as an opportunity for a subtle jab came to mind. "All right--black."

Four pairs of blue eyes exchanged confused glances. There was something mildly entertaining about watching them flounder, she had to admit; she might have smiled, if only she could remember how.

It was Senoka who spoke first. "Maru... isn't that a little bleak for a wedding?"

"Bleak?" repeated Kihara, nothing short of scandalized. "It's blasphemous! Maru, black is a color for mourning!"

Maru met each of their gazes in turn, then went back to staring out the window for no particular reason other than the lack of anything better to do. "Precisely."

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