A rare event was about to happen.
The dress she wore had a gradient from black to red. The sleeves were a deep red wine color, and all the details of the dress were made of gold and adorned with crystals. According to her father, this was a traditional Chinese wedding dress worn by their race for many generations.
Though not traditional, her mother had styled her long white hair into a bun with braids. The hairstyle was adorned with golden flowers, and a crown of pure gold adorned her head. The crown was a family tradition.
As they prepared her, they did not let her sleep. Normally, she would be furious about this, but today she didn't mind, because the moment had finally arrived.
The one moment in her life for which she had fought so hard had come.
Her wedding.
And recalling the chaotic moments of preparing her appearance, she couldn't help but let the corners of her lips lift a few centimeters. Perhaps her groom was also experiencing this chaos.
Taking a deep breath, she looked around the imperial cathedral. It was where powerful or truly important people married, even if they were not of the imperial family, like her and her groom.
From what she understood of the matter, or what she remembered paying attention to during her mother's countless lectures on art or the teachings of the elders, the imperial cathedral was an architectural marvel.
The outer walls of the cathedral were made of light gray stone, carved with intricate details that told the stories of the imperial religion or mythologies, depending on how you saw them. Tall, slender towers rose towards the sky, adorned with figures of crystal and gold.
But the interior was more... Beautiful, as the more cultured say. The high vaulted ceiling was decorated with colorful frescoes depicting epic scenes, and elegant Gothic arches gracefully supported the structure.
The altar, where she awaited her groom and where her father stood ready to begin the wedding, was richly adorned, the focal point of the cathedral. Golden sculptures of angels adorned the altar, as if standing guard under God's command, while columns of white marble, finely carved, rose towards the ceiling.
The wall behind the altar had an opening at the top, allowing a direct view of the sky. And on this day, the rarest eclipse of all would occur. The three suns would unite behind a moon, while the other six moons orbited around the eclipse, spinning in circles.
But she didn't understand the beauty that others saw in these material things. Perhaps the value lay in the effort required to make them.
Her groom used to say that the struggles one goes through are meant to teach them to appreciate what they have, and there are struggles fought in silence and others fought loudly, but what one learns from them depends on how they endure. If someone fights complaining, they are unlikely to see what they can learn from it.
Perhaps she didn't see value in these things because she had never faced any struggle or cared about them.
Perhaps that's why her groom captivated her so much and why she valued him so much, because she had fought for both of them to stand at this altar together.
The albino woman couldn't help but notice that today she was very thoughtful, perhaps happiness was making her set aside laziness for a moment.
She looked at the guests present, from her mother sitting in the nearest chair in the right row, followed by the Emperor and Empress, to the last chairs in the left row, where a man with long hair fiddled with a cellphone and a woman with short hair wore a scarf of long pink feathers.
They were all powerful in their own way. Some had exorbitant amounts of money, others were leaders of empires, kingdoms, or races. Unlike her, they all went through difficulties and, thanks to them, knew how to value everything they had, from a small flower to an entire territory.
She snapped out of her reverie when she felt a familiar magic behind the door.
The moment of the eclipse had arrived, as had the entrance of the groom.
The doors opened and all the guests stood up in respect, except the two elf leaders, which was expected.
With every step the groom took, the stars in the sky drew closer, as if in union with him.
Everyone fell silent, shocked by what he wore. But no one felt like saying anything against it, especially considering that her father was responsible for this.
It wasn't the beautiful white sherwani elaborately adorned with burgundy and gold that he wore, one of the traditional wedding garments of the elves. Surely, no one found the long gold earrings with magical stones on the tip strange, nor the braids in his beautiful long black hair or the golden strands that blended so well into his hair.
What sparked an outcry of indignation from his mother and the murderous look she shot at her father was that the groom held a bridal bouquet and wore a bridal veil, things that did not match his attire; it was a mess, actually, but in the bride's eyes, even in that moment, there was nothing more beautiful than her groom.
Ignoring her mother's gaze, her father said nothing until the groom had ascended the altar.
Coincidence or not, the eclipse only began when the groom ascended the altar and only then did the darkness arrive. However, there was a common feeling among all present: the groom seemed to shine his own light, a brilliant light that shines in the darkest hour.
It wasn't the moment that was magical; it was he who made the moment magical.
But no one knew how or why.
"Simple, I'm swapping Akane for my son-in-law," her father said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
After a few seconds of tense silence, he belatedly realized that he had only made his wife even angrier and tried to correct himself: "Did you expect Akane, the laziest creature that exists and has ever existed, to wear a veil and carry a bouquet? Since she wouldn't wear it, I gave it to my son-in-law." Feeling his wife's gaze growing fiercer and fiercer, he began the wedding.
Akane didn't remember the words of cordiality her father spoke. She was busy admiring her groom. She only snapped out of her reverie when her father was halfway through the question to him: "- Mahal, are you sure you're not under threat? Why on earth do you want to marry her?"
In response, he just gave the most beautiful laugh she had ever heard in her life.
Maybe it was the knife thrown at her father's head, but he quickly continued the ceremony.
"Akane Ryūkoro, try not to scare him away with your laziness and take good care of him. He is officially my son now. If I hear of mistreatment towards him, I will disinherit you." And Akane just nodded in response. She wasn't really paying attention, nor did she hear when her mother threw a sword from, God knows where, at her father's head.
But she heard perfectly when her father declared her Akane Mahal.
And, most importantly, when it came time for her to see him behind the veil.
She hadn't noticed that the roses were blue in the bouquet.
That the six moons were orbiting the eclipse too quickly.
That she couldn't see the features of any of the guests.
But when she realized it, her love fell into her arms, limp, and the world collapsed. The one responsible for tearing a hole in his heart was none other than herself.
Everything crumbles around her.
Nothing else exists but her and him in a field of white spider lilies, and the eclipse that continued to approach them.
The last thing she remembers is seeing all the stars unite at a single point, and a rift open in the middle of the new star.
The exposed core of the star begins to pull the other stars from the sky until the core itself turns into a black hole.
At that moment, there was nothing left but Akane and her dead husband in her arms in that field of white flowers.
But the black hole looked around and saw nothing to eat, to consume... until it set its sights on her beautiful elf.
She tried with all her might to hold onto him, but the spider lilies, now red with his blood, held her back.
And until she could get rid of all of them, she couldn't save him.
But we hope that when the time comes,
She makes the right choice
And see the truth.