The following day was the wedding day and Ivy had barely gotten any sleep, she was too excited after discovering that the weak and useless "Lady Ivy" wasn't so weak and useless. She actually had powers.
Blood manipulation
How great is that? Ivy somehow pitied the original owner of the body. Lady Ivy had died without even knowing what kind of deadly power she had. Question was, who in the world sealed off her magic and why? Did they not know what type of repercussion it would cause for a young lady from a powerful house to not possess magic attributes in a world that looked down on those who didn't have magic?
She stared at her hand that was supposed to have a gushing wound. Emphasis on "supposed" because the wound was non-existent. Did she have two abilities, or was healing something that came with the blood manipulation. She wondered.
"Ahhhh!" Ivy was startled by a scream that came from her door. She looked up to see the source of it.
It was Anya. She had a horrified look on her face. "What, what happened?" Ivy asked the young maid, worried filling her as she assumed the worst. "Your face, my lady. Why do you look like a ghost from my nightmares on your wedding day!" Anya exclaimed. Ivy's brows furrowed as she tried to understand what Anya was going on about.
Anya said nothing but passed Ivy a mirror. Ivy stared at her reflection, not really surprised to see glaring dark circles under her eyes and her skin pale as a ghost. Well, now I know why Anya was overreacting. Today is my wedding day for crap's sake. I already feel shitty about it and now I even look the part. Ivy cursed under her breath
Ivy smiled, "well, it's nothing a little makeup can't fix, right?" Anya sighed, "seriously, my lady." She walked to the curtains and pulled them open, letting in the morning sunlight. After that, Anya helped Ivy out of bed.
After taking a ridiculously and unnecessarily long bath, Ivy sat in front of the dressing mirror as Anya did her make up. "are you well enough to be here?" Ivy asked Anya, concerned.
Anya gave her a bright smile, "you'd be shocked at how competent the Ravenshield's physician is. I feel perfectly fine, to the point where I thought what happened yesterday was just a dream."
After doing her hair and makeup, Anya with the help of two other maids, helped Ivy into her wedding gown.
"You look beautiful, my lady." Anya said when the other two maids left. Ivy smiled, "You think so?" She said as she did a dramatic three sixty-five degrees spin, earning a giggle from Anya.
"I like this new version of you, my lady." Anya found herself saying. Ivy raised her eyebrow playfully "oh? And what is this new version of me like?" Anya thought for a while before responding, "playful, happy and refreshing to be around. No offense but the old you, was stuck up, irritable, always in a bad mood and suffocating to be around." Ivy laughed at Anya's description of the original Lady Ivy.
Their laughter was interrupted by I maid informing them that the bride's carriage was ready and that they had to leave at once. The two ladies stared at each other then sighed. Neither of them was happy with the wedding
They went down, Anya helping Ivy with her dress as they went out.
They found the Marquis waiting for them at the door of the carriage, Liam rode a horse on the left side of the carriage while Lucas sat in the coach seat. It was a tradition for the bride to be escorted by the men in the family.
The three men froze as they stared at Ivy as she walked towards them. She looked beautiful and most of all- she looked like Lady Crystal, the previous Marchioness and Ivy's mum. "Crystal…" Marquis Ravenshield quickly stopped himself when he realized that nearly called his daughter by her mother's name.
"you look beautiful." He said, shocking himself and everyone in earshot at the sincerity in his voice. Lucas scoffed, "oh, please… lets hurry, we have a wedding to be at right now.
The marquis helped Ivy into the carriage before mounting a horse and riding on the right side of the carriage.
Ivy rode with Anya in the carriage.
---
The carriage came to a halt, and before Lucas could even step down, Ivy pushed the door open herself. The smell of polished wood and pressed flowers escaped with her, quickly replaced by the cool, early air of the palace grounds.
With the help of Anya, she descended slowly, deliberately-not out of nerves, but because she knew that the nobles gathered at the entrance were watching. She wondered how the original Ivy would have reacted to this.
The Ancestral Chapel stood ahead like a monument to expectation. Modest in size, but steeped in weight. Its stone walls looked as if they'd been carved from the bones of the kingdom itself, covered in creeping ivy and shadows that didn't quite belong to the time of day. There were no flowers, no banners, no romantic touches. Just the cold permanence of tradition.
Perfect.
The heavy wooden doors loomed ahead, shut tight, as if giving her a chance to turn back. But she didn't pause. She didn't even flinch. I can't believe I died without getting married just to marry in such a sorry place in my second life. Ivy scoffed.
Her gown swept across the cobbled path, quiet as a secret. The veil draped over her shoulders like mist, and her hands, gloved and steady holding a bouquet of white roses, didn't tremble. Why would they, she was still trying to get over the fact that she was reborn, had powers, had a familiar on top of everything else. Honestly this wedding was the least on her mind.
The doors slowly opened, she looked up and at the end of the aisle was an empty spot. The groom was nowhere to be seen. "Ah… My Lady?" Anya said carefully. Not sure what to do as it was unheard of, for a bride to arrive before the groom. "That jack ass…" Ivy spat in disbelief.
She couldn't believe that despite bringing the wedding date closer than the actual date, the jerk had the nerve to actually be late to his own wedding.
"What do we do?" Anya asked. Ivy smiled, confidently holding her flowers, "what do you mean? We'll walk to the end of the aisle, so what if the groom isn't there. There's no harm in waiting." With that, they walked the aisle.
Hushed whispers could be heard as she walked the nobles gathered inside. She held her head high, not giving a damn about them. "I heard she pushed Lady Irene off a balcony, I can't believe the prince still went ahead with the wedding." Ivy heard one noble lady whisper to the man next to her, probably her husband. "Well, maybe that's why he hasn't shown up yet. What best way to humiliate a lady than to let her show up first at." The man replied and you could clearly hear the mockery in his voice.
At the altar, Ivy stood there, proud and unaffected. she even looked bored. To kill time, she started to discreetly look around to check who was in attendance. All the big and relevant families were there. Famous dukes, marquis, counts etc.
Those from the royal family sat on one side of the room. You could tell they were royal just from the air they gave. You could tell just from the way they carried themselves that they looked down on everyone else. Rightfully so, because everyone from the royal family had exceptional magic.
The king and queen sat at the front in flashy thrones. You could clearly see that the king was fuming. "Veyra…" Ivy called out to her familiar through their mind link. "what? You're disturbing my beauty sleep." Came her irritated voice. "Oh, sorry your majesty, this peasant is just in need of your services." Ivy said sarcastically. "What is it?" Veyra responded. "Can you go spy on the king and queen, I'd like to know what they are talking about."
"Fine." Veyra popped out of the mark immediately turning invisible before anyone could see her, then she flew towards the king and queen. When she got there, she linked her ears to Ivy's so that what ever she hears, Ivy hears in real time.
"Where the hell is your son?" the king whispered-yelled at his wife. "I don't know. I have sent for a servant to find out. They should be arriving any moment now," the queen replied. "I have let rumors about him being smitten with that wanna be Ravenshield daughter slide, but I won't let him ruin my chance to have Ravenshield blood in the royal family. She may be a failure when it comes to magic attributes, but that Ravenshield blood flows in her vein. And to top it off, she's a mix of Ravenshield and Vitae blood. Imagine if you mix that with the Embercrown's unpredictable attributes." The King said.
A servant went to whisper to the queen. "The prince went to visit Lady Irene, apparently she was cut with a glass shard by Lady Ivy." "on his wedding day?!" you could hear the anger in the king's voice.
After eves dropping on their conversation, Ivy smiled. Well it's not treason if they disrespected me first, right? Ivy thought to herself. An idea popping in her head.