━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The music swelled again.
The hall burst back into life.
Food, drink, laughter, magic — everything the world could offer in joy.
And one by one, each member of the Crimson Dice spiraled into their own unforgettable night…
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ELYRA & TAVIAN — A YOUNG HEART DISCOVERS ITS ECHO
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The boy — Tavian, as he shyly introduced himself — did not leave Elyra’s side.
Not once.
He walked with her slowly at first, checking the fit of her circlet with surprising care.
Elyra teased him:
Elyra:
“You know, you didn’t need to guard me like a knight sworn to my service.”
Tavian (blushing scarlet):
“I— I wasn’t guarding! I just— I mean— you nearly fell— your legs— I wanted to make sure you were okay!”
Elyra smiled.
Soft. Genuine.
Elyra:
“Then stay with me, Tavian.”
And gods — the joy in his face.
They danced again.
Talked in a quiet corner.
Ate too many sweet pastries.
He told her about his love of sketching birds.
She showed him how to properly notch a bowstring.
They laughed.
They leaned closer.
They forgot the world.
And once, when she stepped wrong and stumbled—
Tavian caught her again.
His voice shook:
“You’re safe. I’ve got you.”
Elyra’s heart fluttered.
Elyra:
“…Yeah. You do.”
She took his hand.
Did not let go.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
LAZ & VEX — FLIRTATION: A BLOOD SPORT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Vex was in her element.
Her black lace dress shimmered like living shadow as she prowled from guest to guest, leaving a trail of flustered nobles and broken self-esteem.
One poor duke dropped his wine goblet just because she smiled at him.
Vex:
“I am not responsible for weak constitutions.”
Laz, meanwhile, sauntered in like a storm made of charm and mischief.
Laz (to a blushing noblewoman):
“You know, most people fear demons, but you— you fear nothing, do you?”
Woman:
“Oh my—”
Within an hour, they were competing.
Vex:
“That’s three hearts for me.”
Laz:
“Please. I’ve got five.”
Vex:
“Five? Show me.”
Laz gestured to a table of flustered admirers.
Vex:
“…Okay fair. But I can steal one of yours.”
Laz:
“Try it.”
They descended on the group like two beautiful, dangerous hurricanes.
Within minutes, the poor civilians were swooning, collapsing, or desperately fanning themselves.
Laz and Vex clinked glasses.
Vex:
“Call it a tie?”
Laz:
“Only because I respect you.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GARRUK — LORD OF THE CHILDREN
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Garruk had not intended to become enrichment for small humans…
…but the moment one toddler tugged his braided beard and giggled, the flood gates opened.
Suddenly ten children were climbing him like a tree.
One sat on his shoulder.
Two hung from his arms.
One dangled from his belt loop like a baby sloth.
Garruk (helplessly):
“Sereth— Elyra— Elaris— HELP—”
But the mothers nearby cooed in joy.
Mother:
“Oh let them play, he’s loving it.”
Garruk (in agony):
“I’m— I’m really not—”
A child slapped a flower crown on his head.
Another shoved a wooden spoon into his hand like a scepter.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Garruk became the unofficial babysitter of the wedding.
By the end, he was lying flat on the floor, children jumping on him like a trampoline.
Garruk (muffled):
“…send help…”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
BORIN — THE ALE-FUELED STORYTELLER
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Borin sat at a long table with a mug as large as his head, retelling tales that grew more dramatic with each retelling.
Borin (pounding table):
“AN’ THEN I SAID — ‘THAT’S NO DRAGON, LASS, THAT’S ME MOTHER-IN-LAW!’”
Guest:
“What happened then?”
Borin:
“She chased me across FIVE KINGDOMS! AYE!”
Another refill.
Another audience gathers.
Borin:
“AN’ THEN — LAD, LISTEN — THE TAVERN WAS ON FIRE, RIGHT? SO OBVIOUSLY I DRANK WHAT WAS LEFT OF THE WHISKEY BEFORE SAVIN’ ANYONE.”
Guest:
“…Why?”
Borin:
“BECAUSE WASTIN’ GOOD WHISKEY IS A CRIME, BOY.”
The people loved him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
PANCAKE — COSMIC CHAOS INCARNATE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Pancake teleported from plate to plate, appearing suddenly to steal food whenever someone wasn’t looking.
He also appeared in a baby’s crib.
Then on the chandelier.
Then wearing a small paper crown someone made for him.
Pancake:
“I am King of Snacks.”
When the bard fainted during a high note, Pancake casually caught the lute before it hit the floor… and proceeded to play it perfectly.
Everyone applauded.
Pancake bowed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
KAER — THE UNWITTING HEARTTHROB
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kaer simply leaned against a stone pillar, arms folded, sipping a quiet drink…
…and somehow
a queue formed.
Not a figurative queue.
A literal line.
Young nobles, warriors, mages, and admirers stood waiting to talk to him.
Kaer blinked — baffled.
Kaer:
“…Is there something on my face?”
Noblewoman #1:
“No.”
Mage #2:
“Absolutely not.”
Ranger #3:
“You’re just… very… tall.”
Kaer:
“I’m always tall.”
Noblewoman #1:
“Yes. And we’re… aware.”
Aurelthane whispered to him while passing:
Aurelthane:
“You’re the strong silent type. People like that.”
Kaer:
“…I don’t want people to like that.”
But by the end of the night, he had acquired:
- three handkerchiefs
? two love letters
? and a ribbon someone tied to his wrist
Kaer (flatly):
“…I hate this.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ARDEN — WINE, STARS, AND SCHOLARSHIP
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Arden had found — or been found by — a fellow scholar named Maros, a gentle-eyed historian with ink-stained fingers.
The two slipped out onto a balcony together, each carrying a bottle of wine.
Maros (laughing softly):
“You realise wine doesn’t actually taste different in the open air?”
Arden (grinning, flushed):
“Divinity enhances flavour profiles.
This is a theological fact.”
Maros:
“That’s not how theology works.”
Arden:
“Try it.”
He did.
Maros:
“…Okay that is actually better.”
Arden beamed.
They debated for over an hour — divinity, magic, astronomy — all while accidentally leaning closer and closer until their shoulders touched.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
AND AT THE CENTER OF IT ALL — THE VORNS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sereth and Elaris never strayed far from one another.
He brushed her hair behind her ear.
She straightened his jacket.
They stole kisses like teenagers in love.
Every laugh they shared felt like another vow spoken.
Every touch was another promise kept.
Their hands remained linked the entire night.
THE QUIET AFTER THE STORM
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The hall slowly emptied into soft pockets of conversation, warm candlelight, and the fading hum of music. The celebration still pulsed in distant corners, but here — at the heart of the room — Sereth and Elaris finally slipped away to the quiet edge of a balcony lit by golden lanterns.
The moon hung low.
The laughter behind them blurred into a warm hush.
And for the first time all day, they were alone.
Elaris drew a shaky breath, his fingers brushing hers.
Elaris:
“…Are you alright?”
Sereth leaned her head against his shoulder, eyes shining.
Sereth:
“I’m perfect. I’ve never been this… happy.”
He exhaled, relief softening every line of his face.
He turned toward her with that boyish half-smile he only ever gave her.
Elaris:
“I lost the rings today.”
Sereth blinked.
Then she laughed — a soft, musical sound — and cupped his cheek.
Sereth:
“You think I care about that?”
Elaris:
“I was terrified you’d—”
Sereth:
“Elaris. I married you today.
That’s all that matters.”
He leaned into her touch, closing his eyes.
Elaris:
“…Gods, you make everything easy.”
Sereth:
“I know.”
They both laughed.
A small moment.
A truely married moment.
Then her eyes softened again — drifting down to her stomach.
Her hand fell over the silk of her gown.
Light. Tender. Wondering.
Sereth (whisper-soft):
“During the ceremony…
when I put my hand there…”
She swallowed, voice trembling.
Sereth:
“I felt something.”
Elaris straightened, chest tightening.
Elaris:
“…Something?”
Sereth nodded, breath shaking.
Sereth:
“A flutter.
A… kick.”
He stared at her.
Disbelieving.
Hope cracking him wide open.
Elaris:
“Sereth — are you saying—?”
Before she could answer, another presence entered — gentle, reverent, as if guided.
Arden.
She stepped inside the lanternlight, her gown glowing like dawn. Her expression serene, purposeful — as though Saren herself whispered at her back.
Arden:
“You called for me.”
Sereth exhaled a shaky sigh — half-laugh, half-cry.
Sereth:
“I think…
I think something’s happening.”
Arden smiled with a warmth that melted ice.
She placed a holy hand upon Sereth’s stomach.
Closed her eyes.
The magic was subtle — not flashy, not radiant — but deep, divine, ancient in its blessing.
A soft ripple of gold shimmered beneath her palm.
Arden’s breath trembled.
Arden (voice cracking):
“…Yes.”
Sereth’s hands flew to her mouth.
Elaris grabbed her other hand, squeezing so hard his knuckles went white.
Elaris:
“Arden — yes what?”
Arden opened her eyes.
Tears shimmered.
Arden:
“She’s with child.
There is life.”
Sereth let out a sound halfway between a sob and a laugh — a bright, stunned happiness breaking free of her chest.
Sereth (whispering):
“I’m… I’m having a baby…”
She tried again, louder, as the truth became real enough to breathe.
Sereth:
“I’m having a baby.”
Elaris dropped to his knees without even realizing it.
Both hands pressed to her stomach.
His forehead rested against her.
Elaris (voice breaking, shattered with joy):
“A baby…
We’re having a baby…”
Sereth threaded her fingers through his hair, crying freely.
Arden wiped her own tears, smiling through them.
Then—
The hall fell silent.
One by one, heads turned toward the balcony.
Conversations died mid-sentence.
Glasses paused mid-air.
Elyra walked in, Tavian at her side, circlet glowing softly — her jaw dropping at the sight before her.
Elaris rose, arms around Sereth, both breathless, glowing.
He turned to the entire hall.
For a heartbeat, he simply looked at them all.
Eyes bright.
Voice shaking.
Heart full.
And then—
Elaris (yelling, joy exploding from him):
“EVERYONE—!!”
The crowd jumped.
Elaris lifted Sereth’s hand high.
Elaris:
“WE’RE HAVING A BABY!!!”
The Hall.
ERUPTED.
SCREAMS. LAUGHTER. CHEERS. TEARS. EVERYTHING.
Elyra burst into tears, throwing her arms around Sereth.
Borin sobbed openly into his beard.
Garruk lifted Kaer AND Laz without meaning to.
Arden clapped a hand over her mouth, crying again.
Vex shrieked loud enough to shake windows.
Tavian nearly passed out beside Elyra.
Pancake?
Pancake teleported onto Elaris’s shoulder and screamed:
Pancake:
“YESSS! TINY VORN! TINY VORN!”
And in the center of it all—
The Vorns held each other.
Laughing.
Crying.
A new chapter beginning in their arms.
Everything was perfect.