TAMASHIIWe stopped in town for a bit. We were waiting on those repairs, after all. The others of our group still were out there somewhere, though I think we can find Michael pretty easily. My friend Portia lives in Phoenix area with us, but every now and then, her father dragged her up to Heaven. Portia was the first female angel in ages, so she was basically a celebrity. Michael wanted her to occasionally meet some important powers or dominions, but she always came back bored.

    Speaking of Portia, since we were in Phoenix, and just had completed the awakening of a few of Mom''s Crests, I was wanting to hang out with my friends, since I wanted a break. “Hey, Mom...” I looked at her with my best sweet and innocent face ever. “Oh great,” she muttered, “yes, daughter?” I could tell she was less-than-thrilled at what she knew might be a major imposition. She was a good mother and protected me, often eating potentially dangerous foods first or throwing herself in front of critters so I didn''t get hurt. But she could be stubborn. “I was wondering, might I visit my friends? After all, you''ve got your friends here and we don''t really need to rush.” Nevras was typically the soft touch in the family, and he was patient and kind in everything he did from carpentry to working on farming. He had a sort of Fred Rogers mindset to life, while Ambrosia wasn''t very nurturing and could be stern. I knew immediately that he would probably oblige, and sure enough he said, “I see no reason why not. Ambrosia can have down-time with Aqorm, Yazim, Selqui, and Lilith. And I can visit my parents while they build the bridge...” “No, you may not,” Mom interrupted, glaring at her husband, “the sooner we get done with this quest, the sooner we can all go home. Then you can spend as much time with your friends as you want. I do not want to spend months or years on this quest. Not like last time.” While I was mature enough actually to understand short-term versus long-term reasoning... I was nine after all. Of course I wouldn''t go along with that decision. Understanding that reasoned discussion wasn''t going to yield any results, it was time to bring out the big guns.

    “Uuuuuuuuwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~” I screamed and cried, a high-pitched ear-splitting sound. After a few minutes, I cried again. And then again, just for good measure. I cried not for sympathy, but because I knew my mother absolutely hated the sound of me crying, complaining every time I did it. Something about being kept up nights with no sleep, combined with the fact that I could talk at a very young age and didn''t need to cry. Back then, I did have some emotional issues despite developing early, but here I was just doing crocodile tears. Mom caved, “Dammit, Tamashii! Alright, stop, you can visit your friends. We''ll watch the bridge being built, while you go have fun.”

    “Don''t do that again,” Mom threatened. Mom didn''t usually spank me or anything, but I did get scolded and put in the corner a lot. As I grew older and had friends, I got grounded and they forbade them from coming. I wasn’t spanked unless I was risking my own life or someone else''s, as I found out that one time. I understood better than some of the modern “experts” on raising children that there was a time and place for discipline, and being afraid to say no to children was the best way to turn even a kid like me into a psycho or a spoiled person who wasted their life on cheap thrills. And yet, this threat was mostly empty. She was tough on me, but also fair. I wouldn''t be punished that much. But I shouldn''t make a habit of crying to get my way, since I was almost a teen, you know. I was nine after all. It was time for me to be more responsible.

    AMBROSIA

    Nine years ago, after defeating Belial, we decided to settle down. Aqorm had apparently had a child that she hadn''t told me about. I was peeved at first, but eventually I understood. I was pregant at the time, and I believed this to be the child of Aqorm and Elias. But gradually I worked out that the two of them were really close, but Elias was not very committed to child-rearing. It also helped that I noticed her tail growing in. This child had already learned to walk and talk, although she had a tendency to growl at people she didn''t like. Sastra had blond hair like her mother, but has very intense eyes that make people deeply nervous to look at, since they recall all their sins. Since she can walk already, she has been drafted as flower girl. But isn''t the flower girl supposed to be in a white dress, not black?

    Michael and Lilith brought a child with her too. Apparently, Lilith was seeing several lovers, and Michael happened to get her pregnant The child was beautiful with luminous wings and long red hair, and she can already talk and crawl. “Miss Ambrosia,” Portia says, “can I feel your belly?” This was at a period where we were still having rehearsals for the big event, and so I had a few more days. I nodded. She reached out her hand and rubbed my five-month belly. It tickled, but I waited as she felt where my unborn child was. “I love her,” she declared. Wait, how did she know my child was female?

    NEVRAS

    Michael gave me strict instructions not to tell Ambrosia that her pregnancy with Portia had actually been a reverse pregnancy, that Lilith had not in fact been the mother, but had been the “father”, explaining that by their nature, demons had mostly inactive organs, even though Lilith had confided that she was more alive than most. Ambrosia was not to know, at least until later, because Michael wasn''t sure whether she''d accept such things. I don''t know what Michael is talking about, Ambrosia accepted me. But perception is a big reason why people leave the churches and temples, they figure that because the priests have standards of conduct that God must also hate gays, transgender people, or generally people like them. The mission of the church is welcome and forgive the sinner, not pretend they have no sin. In any case, I believed honesty was the best policy, but I didn''t happen to believe in confessing secrets to random people. As long as Ambrosia didn''t ask, I wouldn''t tell her. Even though I know she would accept it, this was Michael’s secret.

    Although I was open and honest about my tendency to crossdress, I knew there was a time and place for it. During the wedding, I wasn''t going to do this in front of all of these people. Ambrosia had few relatives, but we invited all of the members of our party, then their parents and cousins, and then all of my relatives and my parents invited nobles and politicians, who in turn invited many of their faithful constituents to vote them back into power. By the end of it, we had about 144k people, but it paid for itself because, you know, nobles. They each wanted to compete with each other to show off their wealth. With the massive amounts of money they had, they agreed to build a sizable temple in which to conduct the service. Running out of horizontal space, they wound up making balconies so as many people as possible could see, and did some tricks with acoustics so everyone could hear. Needless to say, not all of these people would take it well if I did something out of the ordinary. Ambrosia promised that we would switch outfits for the reception (and wedding night), which was inviting mainly our close friends. For this reason, both the tuxedo and wedding gown were designed to stretch and shape to our bodies in a flattering way, and so it was that despite being noticeably pregnant, nobody among the visitors would be able to figure that out. Her dress was a floor-length strapless white dress with black flowers, with a internal zip-up corset just above her belly and lace flaring out to mask that section. The gown''s train could be unhooked to reveal a mini dress, which could be zipped tighter, but right now, this was doing its job of making her look virginal. We didn''t mind omitting some details to this huge crowd, it was our friends we would tell. The reception was for our friends. My tuxedo was a plain black coat and pants with white tie and shirt, so between my outfit and her dress, it looked vaguely like a zebra marrying a penguin. But outfits were pretty stylish, so it wasn’t that strange.

    We let our groomsman and bridesmaids wear whatever they wanted, rather than insisting on expensive outfits and ugly coral dresses. Ambrosia had bad moments, but didn''t feel like being a bitchy controlling woman for her special day. Zoe wore a green taffeta dress with layers of white chiffon underneath, something that was impossibly poofy and lightweight despite having about 50 yards of material. I had also decided to make Zoe my maid-of-honor since we usually were pretty close, so this prohibitively expensive gown got paid for. Azrael''s dress was an altered miko gown with white top part and red below, but with more frills and such to make it into a bridesmaid''s dress. Elias apparently had liked the outfit that he''d seen in Qurac temple for men, so yeah the whole turban, white tunic, blue robe with fringes and tassels, and many-colored jacket with jeweled breastplate. Aqorm was dressed in traditional elven garb, which was terribly strange to our eyes. She wore clothing of woven-together leaves and flowers, and hers was green like Zoe''s dress (except the flowers gave some blue, yellow, and purple tones in spots) but unlike that dress, it made much more of a statement. Rather than shelling out a fortune, this dress probably hadn''t cost a cent, as she gathered the flowers and leaves and stuck them together, and Elias helped to Preserve the leaves and flowers. Michael just wore a white toga, and he held Portia the entire time. Sastra scampered about on all fours like a wild kid after she did her job as flower girl, since neither Aqorm nor Lilith believed children should have any boundaries. Yazim Jianne just wore his regular sorcerer''s robes, which were apparently formal enough, he said. Selqui stayed near the boat, because she needed water frequently and the service would be too long, and besides which she didn''t really understand the concept of formal clothing. And Lilith wore a black dress with lace midriff and slit sides, it was formal, if you confused formal for “suitable for attending a dance at a night club.” I''m not sure how people in the temple felt about it, but she was kinda in good company. Our friends are freaks, but well they''re our freaks. I realized that with all of these different outfits, we probably needn''t have bothered trying to conceal stuff about ourselves. I couldn''t exactly change, but Ambrosia pulled off her train halfway through the service and exposed her mini-dress and her baby belly. The audience gasped in shock. Then they looked at the rest of us, and shrugged.

    But before that came the wedding ceremony. The service opened to Come Ye Thankful People Come and ended with Jerusalem My Happy Home which was sung by the absolutely huge congregation. When it came time to hand off the bride, Ambrosia''s mother had died already, as had her adopted family. I was worried that she would feel alone, when suddenly the room filled with an awesome presence, and I saw the rough form of God by her side and behind her Manna''s spirit stood with pride for her daughter. Ambrosia looked over, smiled, and stepped forward towards me. We invited Jesus as our priest. Jesus appeared as a black-haired woman with curly hair wearing a similarly black and white clerical outfit. Basically, it was a long shapeless robe, which was black with a stripe of white moving up the midsection and fanning out, forming what looked like an upside-down peace sign without a circle (Elias later explained that this symbol represented life and victory and was known as a Tree of Life sigil, and the so-called “peace sign” was actually a death rune). When Jesus stretched her arms out, the lines formed a cross. Inside these lines were black crosses, and where all lines met was a small Yin Yang with a golden chi ro symbol in the center and alpha on the left and an omega on the right. If it was possible to have pimped-out priest''s robe, we definitely didn''t spare expense on making Jesus look nice either. Ambrosia explained that Jesus deserved it, because he/she was family after all. I had no idea what she meant by this.

    Normally, a priest will talk about earthly marriage, from passages like Genesis 2:24-28 for the Old Testament, then 1 Corinthians 13 about love, and then usually Matthew 19:4-6 talking about marriage. But Jesus wasn''t really one to dwell on what other people did. Instead, she talked about God, pointing out how Jeremiah 3:1-14 talked about how humans were married to God, then Revelation 19:6-10 which was a short verse about the Last Days and the Lamb marrying the Bride (the Church), and finally Mark 2:18-20 in which Jesus compared the disciples to attendants of a bridegroom. Before he asked our vows, he delivered a powerful sermon about how these guests were the symbolic righteous in the Last Days. Just as the Bride and Groom in the Last Days were Jesus and the Church, one must see marriage as almost an extension of being joined again to God. Jesus spoke of his role as Messiah, and how all who followed him had atonement of their sins, not just those who said they were Christians. Jesus also revealed that God had provided this ceremony, by convincing these lords and ladies that hosting a public event was in their best interests. Jesus talked in depth about many religions and explained that he had “other sheep which were not of this fold” and his goal was to redeem as many people as possible. Jesus explained that religion meant to “re-connect” and that marriage was in fact the summation of everything written in legitimate scriptures. It was powerful and moving, but I was kinda shocked at the idea of loving Ambrosia to the point of worship. That was a tall order. How could I see Ambrosia as if she were God?

    Weirder still, the vows we were asked were not the standard ones. Rather, he asked us, “Do you, Nevras Fitzembor, take this woman, Ambrosia Brahman to be your lawfully wedded wife, in good and bad times, for all of eternity?” That was bit more hardcore than I was used to. We agreed though. I loved that woman with all of my heart, and if the two of us lived in eternity, I wouldn''t mind in the least.

    I did my best in the days to come, though. I said my vows and she said hers. We tried to have fun together, so my family offered us a honeymoon in Heaven. I refused to see other women. I made sure to look after the family with part-time jobs, yet make time to be around my wife. We had no more children after the first, but I made sure she felt loved, and did whatever she wanted with me. And when Tamashii was born, we did our best to make sure she was loved and cared for. She learned to walk and talk with us watching her, and we tried to get her to have friends. Our family friends acted as her friends, and she grew to admire adults more than children. And yet, since I wanted her to have peers, we started inviting Portia and Sastra to birthday parties and other events. Ambrosia and I wanted the best for our daughter. As she grew older, she didn''t ask why she didn''t have other friends. She had seen the treatment she had gotten in Opening. We did our best to make sure that she knew she was loved, despite all that had happened to her And I did my best to make sure that Ambrosia knew that she was dearest to me. sea??h thё Novёl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    AMBROSIA

    And so it was, that through the next few years we did our best to keep this vow. Even though Nevras could get on my nerves, I knew there was more to life than stupid pet peeves about who didn''t do the dishes or who put up the toilet seat so they could pee standing up (It''s fun! Why should I care that I usually miss? I feel manly doing it), because this was our marriage, and part of being a mature adult meant honoring commitments. Plus, we had such a cute child that neither of us dared leave. We protected her from that nice puffer sushi by eating all of it ourselves. Or any other type of sushi, after all, raw fish could be bad for you. And if she got bit by snakes or spiders, we made sure to suck out the poison (we sometimes forgot about the spitting out part so she started to call us dummies for our effort, but this was okay because she was safe). We kept hoping she would meet a nice boy, but it seemed like all she could manage was girlfriends, so I tried to keep her having a good childhood.