The bride carried a black bouquet (Lamenting_Quill and Silver Wolf)

[Lamenting_Quill]

She couldn't believe they were honestly going to seriously push her to do this for the sake of maintaining THEIR social standing in this magical society of social climbers. Arranged marriages were so archaic and meaningless, forced upon the youth by greedy guardians.
Marina stood in front of her full length mirror wearing her finished wedding gown, the final fitting has just ended and the seamstresses gone from her chambers. The gown was beautiful beyond imagination with the frothy white silk and antique lace edging, but Marina could find no joy in the elegance of her gown or the fact she would be someones bride in less than twenty four hours.

Her lovely face formed a miserable frown at her reflection, she did not want to marry this man no matter whom he was in society, he was nothing to her. All her life, Marina had dreamed of nothing else but marrying her soul mate and living her life out in wedded bliss, now those dreams had been stolen from her.
Marina's aqua green eyes shifted to her window that she's used so many times to sneak out and at that moment an outrageous idea struck her. She could run away and start a new life somewhere else of her own making, fulfilling her own dreams and wishes instead of the wishes of someone else.
Why shouldn't she? Her parents had never once in her life ever considered what would make their daughter happy, all they cared about was their wealth and social standing amongst the aristocracy.

To stay here and marry a complete stranger she'd never before been allowed to meet definitely did not appeal to her at all, the idea of being trapped in a loveless political marriage appalled her to no end. At that moment, Marina's mind was made up, she would indeed run away and never look back even once. From now on her goal for once was to be happy and pursue her own dreams, that was all Marina had ever wanted and she did not think that was so much to ask for.
Quickly moving away from the mirror, Marina moved to her wardrobe and carefully shed the gorgeous wedding gown. She placed it upon a hanger and hung it neatly within the wardrobe, she replaced it with a comfortable pair of tawny breeches and a green lawn blouse paired with sensible leather boots.
Now dressed properly for a journey, Marina made her way to her desk and wrote a detailed letter to her parents explaining why she couldn't go through with the wedding and to not try looking for her. She then proceeded to pack herself a bag for the trip.

Once her bag was packed with the necessary few changes of clothing and a small amount of toiletries, she snatched up some of the family jewels she possessed to sell for money in order to purchase a ticket out of here a sensible home for herself when she settled somewhere.
The young mage snapped her fingers and in her hands appeared a braided rope ladder which she connected to her windowsill and then tossed her bag out the window before she herself carefully climbed down the ladder.
After her feet touched the ground she already felt so free, though she still had a bit to go before she was in the clear. She knew this route by heart after all of her eighteen years of sneaking out to be her friends that her folks had deemed unworthy of notice, Marina made her way through the well known route carefully for the very last time.

Ducking through the winding iron of the the front gate, Marina bolted down the drive as if the devil himself was chasing her. There was no way there were going to drag her back there now that she was free, she refused to marry that stranger tomorrow.
Into the night she fled, her spirit feeling lighter aside from the terrified pounding of her heart from the fear that someone might jump at her from the shadows and drag her back there kicking and screaming. Feeling relieved upon reaching the train station after selling the jewels to a local jewelry vender, Marina started to relax a bit; especially after her purchased ticket was clutched tightly in her shaking palms.

She knew in her heart though that there was no way she could actually let her guard down until she was on that train and it was moving far away from this place, carrying her with it. Hence when the train rolled up and the conductor called out for passengers to board, Marina as the lone entering passenger handed him her ticket and hightailed it on that train. For good measure, she even paid the conductor five silver pieces to get the train moving as soon as physically possible.

She was free now.

[Silver Wolf]

The husband-to-be was no where near excited about the upcoming ceremony. It wasn't so much the idea of marrying a complete stranger as to how tedious those damn wedding oaths were! He had sat in on enough family weddings to know that the length of those oaths could put many an elder to sleep. Even he had been hard pressed not to yawn during his elder brothers marriage. Now it was his turn and Toya had been nothing but an irritation, trying to dig at him about how he knew nothing about his bride. Because of course Toya had been able to marry the woman he loved, because when he made the request, there were no daughters of rank for an arranged marriages. Though Toya's wife came from a high enough ranking family to indeed add to the family honor.

Cloudy gray eyes flickered down to the paper in his hands, trying to hide the grimace that wanted to form. He had been going over this paper for the last few days after much pressure from his parents, and warnings to memorize his oaths. The last few days he hadn't had to read the same lines over and over again, but having been caught with his nose buried in a book not pertaining to the next day had raised hell. Rather he was sitting at the table with his parents, trying to act like he was reading the lines so that he wouldn't have to speak. If he acted like he was finished memorizing he knew the next thing would be to recite the lines from heart. He really didn't know why his parents were so worried about the oaths. Though it was probably because they wouldn't want their son to shame them if he screwed up a single word in the entire oath.

He peeked up from beneath his bangs, moving his head as little as humanly possible and swallowed when he found the pale blue eyes of his mother watching him like a hawk across the table. She was a lovely woman, with rich auburn hair and pale blue eyes. Both the sons had the same dark auburn as their mother, though Toya had carried on her pale blue eyes while Luka had his fathers slate gray. If this girl had been just a few years older, he could have been amusing himself at Toya's frustration over an arranged marriage. Instead Luka, next in line and closer to age to the bride, was the one selected. Sighing as softly as possible, and catching the slight smile from his mother, he settled back to review the words once more before he obediently had to recite them to her.

~*~*~*~*~*~

It wasn't until morning when they heard about the disappearance. Luka had only just gone to bed a few hours prior, having stayed up an hour or two after his mother had finally dismissed him. She had only allowed him to leave when he managed to recite the lines well enough and had been unable to fight the newest yawns. He was awoken with the news that his soon to be in-laws had arrived. Puzzled as to why he was being requested to meet with them, he dressed in a hurry. By normal circumstances he wouldn't see any of that family until the ceremony, much less his bride-to-be. Had something gone wrong? Some spell gone amiss?

No, it turned out his bride-to-be was a missing bride. She had slipped out in the night, leaving behind a note to her parents. He didn't even need to request it before the note was being offered to him, passed from his fathers hands to his. Even though they were not yet married, there was some social ruling that said fiancees were already bound together. Which meant, at his fathers stern glare, he was supposed to go out and find his bride-to-be and bring her back. Luka was just a bit unwilling because after all, he hadn't actually married the girl yet. But on the other hand, this would bring shame to his own family, that someone had refused an arranged marriage with them.

Such a dilemma though the glares from his fathers and the lightly veiled hints of how 'Luka would handle it' was settling any such doubts. Luka knew, while he was already considering a few steps ahead as to what he would need to do, he was still a bit unwilling and tempted to argue since his fathers was pressing so much. His family was powerful, not only in money but in magic as well. Both his parents came from very magic rich bloodlines that had only further strengthened this house, as both sons were powerful as well. Toya had made it well known that he could manage many a spell with ease.

But even he did not quite have the knack that his little brother had. Very few knew Luka even had much power since he had learned early on how to shield most of it. Giving off too much of a sense of his power was a bit irritating since it drew many gazes. Plus he simply didn't show off as much as Toya did, choosing to do as much as was expected of him and no more, though he always studied more in secret. He was already considering what spells he could use, only vaguely registering his mother remarking that she would pack for him, the words going right over his head. Certainly if she didn't pack for him, likely he wouldn't pack since he would be too caught up in what spells would be useful.

Some sort of scrying spell possibly? It would have to be something he could travel with. Maybe one of his crystals would work? He had managed to use them like that before and had only shattered one when he put a little too much magic into it. He didn't even notice the gazes on his back as he slipped out without a word, followed closely by his mother though she did not disturb his thoughts, only offering ideas if he asked her, instead wandering around to fill a bag for him.

[Lamenting_Quill]

The scenery that passed by the window of her box was a total breath of fresh air, she'd never before been allowed to travel away from the mansion without supervision. One thing Marina would never miss was being treated like a bird in a gilded cage expected to sing and flutter her lovely wings for the amusement of the onlookers. Never again.
She leaned her head back against the head rest of her seat with her eyes slowly drifting closed from exhaustion, a good sleep now that danger was nearly passed would definitely benefit her.

Her dreams were blank and dreamless for the first time in a very long time, no nightmares or spending an eternity beside a man she could never love and could never love her. An eternity of misery and loneliness.
Marina was jolted awake when the train came to it's screeching halt upon the tracks when it reached it's stop at the next station, this was where she would get off and hop onto another train. That made it harder for her family or her 'fiance' to track her down, they couldn't just follow the route of one train and find her along its destinations.

"Thank you for choosing our company today, miss" The conductor said as he assisted her down the steps of the train before heading back inside the train to get things going for the next trip.
Tossing the hood of her cloak over her auburn hair, Marina scooped up her bag and moved swiftly for the exit of the station. She would a remote inn to spend the night before she would continue her journey at the next train station, she had a long way to go and rest was most certainly going to be necessary.

The Rooster's Nest Inn proved suitable enough on the very edge of town, it was only about half a mile from the second train station where she would embark on her second trip.
The place was decent enough as there were no rats or scoundrels running about the place, although it certainly was a great many steps below what she was accustomed to. That alone made the place perfect, her family would never think to look for their high born daughter here.
Marina paid for a room with a single bed and a small meal before she received her room key and retired for the night. Her dinner of a tasty meat stew was sent up by the innkeepers cheery wife not long after.

The soft bed compared to the stiff seats of the train was most welcome after such a long journey, she fell asleep quickly. Never once contemplating that the mage she was supposed to marry might be powerful enough to track her down and drag her back in time for a late wedding...

[Sponsored content]