In the darkness, Vivian tightly gripped the arm of her escort. She could tell they were still moving by the gentle breeze pressing the veil to her face. A thin, vertical light appeared in the distance in front of her, followed by a low, rumbling crack as enormous doors opened to a gigantic gothic cathedral.
Vivian had seen the design in virtual reality, but it simply couldn't compare to the real thing. The cathedral was the largest that had ever been built, possible only through the advent of Plasteel, the only material known to humanity that was capable of supporting such a large structure.
The small circular platform beneath Vivian continued silently moving into the yawning chamber. Dozens of meters below her was the immense, dark red walkway with kilometers of ground on either side that would be perfectly flat were the space not large enough to see the gentle curve of the planet. The stark-white walls became a faint pale blue that grew darker the further they drew up into the atmosphere to a point that the vaulted ceiling was nearly indistinguishable from the open sky.
The only thing that filled the massive space was an ethereal drone that was the slow-crawling Bridal Chorus echoing off the distant walls. The platform moved at a steady pace through the open space as it approached the alcove at the other side. The interior of the cathedral contained no artificial lighting along its walls. The space was lit only by the system's singular dim, pale-white star, guided through the clerestory and onto the raised dais covered in what appeared at a distance to be carpet.
As they drifted closer, the rough surface was revealed to be hundreds of acres of a dark red, almost black forest. The Crimson King Maples stretched over the dais in a vast monoculture currently lit by the dim sun. A light mist blew gently through the forest, disturbed only by the platform as it followed above the trampled path toward the clearing in the forest's center.
As they moved, Vivian and her bridal escort were surrounded by a constellation of dozens of small lights observing her from every angle. On approach to a much smaller, human-sized dais, the points of light joined the hundreds of others tactfully swarming the area. The platform came to a stop as it sank into a designated spot, becoming flush with a short walkway. Vivian and her escort stepped off the platform and walked forward to a short flight of stairs leading up to the dais where her betrothed Delano waited for her.
His face was so often stoic, his expression barely lifting even in Vivian's presence, though it always did so. However, the moment that Vivian became visible over the stairs for the first time on this day, a smile grew across Del's face that was perhaps the most genuine one that she had ever seen.
White was the color that Vivian wore most frequently, preferring the way it complimented her hair, but the way the pale sun reflected off the fabric that poured over her form provided an ethereal glow like nothing Del had ever seen before, and in such a way that only Del's biological eyes could perceive. It gave him a unique perspective that none of the hundreds of cameras, nor the millions of viewers through them could descry.
The halter of her dress was cinched just over her sternum with a clip featuring an oval aquamarine gem. The bright blue provided the only color to her gown and was a perfect match to her eyes. The dress left her back and shoulders open, and together with the top of her detached sleeves, her bare collarbones were gracefully framed. Her veil was a loose rope-knotted lace net that met with her skirt and added just enough brilliance to the train for spectators across the galaxy to see.
Del couldn't help but smile, and it wasn't one of those polite and professional smiles he put on for his employees and business partners. It was a smile of pure joy, and it remained as long as his eyes were on her. His expression matched the knot in her stomach precisely, and as she left the faceless escort and took her place across from her betrothed, she considered how incredibly lucky she was to be in her current position. Her own smile cracked when she remembered that luck had little to do with it.
They stood for a moment, staring into each other's eyes until the otherworldly drone of the Bridal Chorus coming to an end and they stood in total silence.
