Ghost Bride

She was led into a room with a plaque, not at all what would normally appear as a wedding hall. Throughout the room were intricate paper flowers, the blossoms of the dead. They lined the walls of the tent, spiraling from the ground upward, and a trail framed by white chrysanthemums led from the door to the altar.

On the wooden platform sat a single dark wooden plaque covered in a white shawl.

Although the words on the plaque were obscured, from the setup alone, there was no doubt that this was the shrine of someone who had passed. In fact, all of the decorations in the room pointed toward a funeral. Daphne had thought that the Northerners would simply lay their dead in the ground and cover them with dirt, but everything here screamed of traditions from the Kingdom of Eversun.

For a split second, Daphne's own parents' funeral surfaced in her mind. She had clung to their coffins for such a long time, but in the end, all she could do was stare at the words on their plaque as she tried to commit their face to her memory. And whenever she had complaints about her uncle and aunt's rule, she would always retreat to the room that held her parents' plaques, talking to them for lengths of time.

Sure, they were just outside the boundaries of the Eversun capital, and they were technically on Eversun land, but seeing a plaque here was strangely foreign.

"Your Highness, are you ready to begin the wedding ceremony now?"

Daphne froze. "I thought there would be no wedding."

"Just not to the King."

"Here?" She tried to keep her voice still and to not betray her confusion or surprise.

"Yes, Your Highness."

Daphne looked around, not sure whether the Northern King would emerge from the darkness.

Perhaps, the next moment, he would simply materialize in front of her, she tried to convince herself.

The familiar shadow did not appear.

"Where is he?"

"Your groom is right there," the maid motioned in the direction of the plaque.

Daphne retreated a step.

"Has the Majesty not told you? You are to become a ghost bride."

The maid said those words so casually that Daphne's head spun. If her previous understanding was correct, she was to become the consort of the current Northern King, not some ghost bride of a dead man. And plus, the Northern King himself said that he would meet her later tonight.

If she died right here and became a ghost bride, how could she ever kill the Northern King later tonight? Would all of her suffering be for nothing, after all?

She would die as a traitor to the kingdom, and Akira would never receive the promised antidote.

"Who is my groom to be?" Daphne asked, enunciating each and every word.

"Please go forward and lift the veil. That would symbolize your union."

This was barbaric even for Northerners.

"And I suppose I will join him after I do so?"

The maid didn't respond.

She only took out a crystal vial, the one Daphne was shown earlier by the Northern King. Daphne recognized it immediately. It was the very same as the bottle that had shattered into a million pieces. It was none other than Akira's lifeline.

"As soon as the Princess of Eversun completes this marriage ceremony, I will personally bring this cure to your servant."

"And how can I trust you?"

"We aren't like people of Eversun. We aren't liars," this servant nearly squeezed the words out from between her teeth.

"Then swear to me under your mighty spirit." Daphne knew the power of their promises. She had learned of them as a child in her classes.

"I, Devanka, swear to the lords of the heavens above, the ever-watching Tian, that I will deliver this cure as soon as Your Highness completes this wedding proposal. Any failure to do so will cast me deep into the underworld, and my soul will become consumed by the demons themselves."

Daphne hesitantly walked forward and lifted the veil, revealing the mahogany plate with the carved golden words

She could read the words easily: Place of the Crown Prince Aurin.

Although the golden words formed a straight line, and the language was that of her own, she could not wrap her mind around them. For a few moments, she stared blankly at the line.

Aurin. Crown prince. The name sounded so familiar, and it hung right at the tip of her tongue.

"Aurin," she whispered, her tingling as a jolt ran down her back.

She motioned to reach out to the plaque, unsure what she was doing. It was almost as if her body was controlled by a mysterious force that willed her forward.

The maid politely reminded Daphne to retract her reaching hands.

"Aurin," she repeated. There was only one crown prince of the Northern Kingdom in history.

"Do you prefer my brother over me?" A voice boomed in the background, and a low chuckle followed.

"Your brother?"

"Pity, Your Highness doesn't even know his name?"

She shook her head in confusion, thinking that she should have once known his name.

"I... should I?"

"No." He took her hand, planting a kiss on it. "All you need to know is that I'm taking you from him."

Her eyes widened.

"You killed him and took the throne from him!" It was like there was a spark in her mind as she suddenly recollected the facts.

He didn't comment.

"He was the perfect crown prince who preferred peace with the Kingdom of Eversun, and you murdered him before he could ever ascend the throne!" She shook her hands away from him. "He was obedient, civilized, and kind-hearted!" Mentally, she added on an "unlike you."

"So what? The former crown prince was obedient, civilized, kind-hearted. And where did that bring him?" He stared at her, his dark eyes drilling into her bones. "That brought him right to the depths of hell itself."

Daphne took a step backward.

"You over there, go deliver the antidote. There is nothing else for you to do in this room. Make sure that you personally deliver it to the hands of the Princess of Eversun's maid." He swatted the maid away. "And you, Your Highness, we have a lot to do going into the night."

The maid set the tent flap down on her way out, and suddenly, all that there was left was Daphne, the wooden plaque, and the Northern Barbarian King himself.

"Your Highness, I did take Aurin's soul." He pushed her against the wooden altar. "And now, I'm going to take his bride as well, even if she's only his ghost bride."