If even these had scruples about the question, they had the grace still to smile and to love Mim and to treat her chosen husband with great courtesy.
The ceremony was in the rhmei, where Kurt first knelt before old Hef and swore that the first two sons of the union, if any, would be given the name h’Elas as chani to the house, so that Hef’s line could continue.
And Kta swore also to the custom of iquun, by which Kta would see to the begetting of the promised heirs, if necessary.
Then Nym rose and with palms toward the light of the phusmeha invoked the guardian spirits of the Ancestors of Elas. The sun outside was only beginning to set. It was impossible to conduct a marriage-rite after Phan had left the land.
“Mim,” said Nym, taking her hand, “called Mim-lechan h’Elas e-Hef, you are chan to this house no longer, but become as a daughter of this house, well beloved, Mim h’Elas e Hef. Are you willing to yield your first two sons to Hef, your foster-father?”
“Yes, my lord of Elas.”
“Are you consenting to all the terms of the marriage contract?”
“Yes, my lord of Elas.”
“Are you willing now, daughter to Elas, to bind yourself by these final and irrevocable vows?”
“Yes, my lord of Elas.”
“And you, Kurt Liam t’Morgan u Patrick Edward, are you willing to bind yourself by these final and irrevocable vows, to take this free woman Mim h’Elas e Hef for your true and first wife, loving her before all others, committing your honor into her hands and your strength and fortune to her protection?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Hef h’Elas,” said Nym, “the blessing of this house and its Guardians upon this union.”
The old man came forward, and it was Hef who completed the ceremony, giving Mim’s hand into Kurt’s and naming for each the final vows they made. Then, according to custom, Ptas lit a torch from the great phusmeha and gave it into Kurt’s hands, and he into Mim’s.
“In purity I have given,” Kurt recited the ancient formula in High Nechai, “in reverence preserve, Mim h’Elas e Hef shu-Kurt, well-beloved, my wife.”
“In purity I have received,” she said softly, “in reverence I will keep myself to thee to the death, Kurt Liam t’Morgan u Patrick Edward, my lord, my husband.”
And with Mim beside him, and to the ritual weeping of the ladies and the congratulations of the men, Kurt left the rhmei. Mim carried the light, walking behind him up the stairs to the door of his room that now was hers.
He entered, and watched as she used the torch to light the triangular bronze lamp, the phusa, which had been replaced in its niche, and he heard her sigh softly with relief, for the omen would have been terrible if the light had not taken. The lamp of Phan burned with steady light, and she then extinguished the torch with a prayer and knelt down before the lamp as Kurt closed the door, knelt down and lifted her hands before it.
“My Ancestors, I, Mim t’Nethim e Sel shu-Kurt, called by these my beloved friends Mim h’Elas, I, Mim, beg your forgiveness for marrying under a name not my own, and swear now by my own name to honor the vows I made under another. My Ancestors, behold this man, my husband Kurt t’Morgan, and whatever distant spirits are his, be at peace with them for my sake. Peace, I pray my Fathers, and let peace be with Elas on both sides of the Dividing Sea. El, let thoughts of war be put aside between our two
lands. May love be in this house and upon us both forever. May the terrible Guardians of Nethim hear me and receive the vow I make. And may the great Guardians of Elas receive me kindly as you have ever done, for we are of this house now, and within your keeping.”
She lowered her hands, finishing her prayer, and offered her right hand to Kurt, who drew her up.
“Mim t’Nethim,” he said. “Then I had never heard your real name.”
Her large eyes lifted to his. “Nethim has no house in Nephane, but in Indresul we are ancestral enemies to Elas. I have not burdened Kta with knowing my true name. He asked me, and I would not answer, so surely he suspects that I am of a hostile house, but if there is any harm in my silence, it is on me only. And I have spoken your name before the Guardians of Nethim many times, and I have not felt that they are distressed at you, my lord Kurt.”
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