CHAPTER 2

"In the eyes of our Great Father's Salazar, Alexandrite, and Roman, and witnessed by our Blessed Mother's, Lilith, Obsidian, and Nightingale, we begin the vows of this marriage." the pastor said.

"Amen." the whole crowd said together.

Prince BlackScale had long let go of Venus's hand and was staring boredly at the pastor. Venus gripped the sides of her ruffly wedding dress. She casted her eyes down on the ground and felt herself spacing out.

"Oh, how I wish I was still in the temple of Lilith." Venus thought. "Perhaps, I would be the Saintess blessing this union instead."

Venus is mind trailed off to the days of simplicity. her days as a ordinary Saintess in the temple of Lilith. She dressed in prayer robes everyday, appearing in morning prayers, annual baptisms, and even blessing a few weddings.

"Venus?"

Venus looked up. Her pastor and Prince Blackscale were looking over at her. She didn't know exactly what had been asked of her but she knew she really only had one line to say.

"I do." she said simply.

The pastor smiled and then looked back ahead to the crowd.

"This holy union to be official. I now declare these two married!" the pastor spoke with happiness in his voice.

The crowd stood from their seats and began clapping loudly.

Prince Blackscale and Venus turned to the crowd and began walking together back down the aisle. She noticed that Prince Blackscale was holding her hand ever so gently.

Once back behind the double doors, he let go of her hand and sighed loudly. His face was covered in a annoyed look and he loosened the tie around his neck aggressively.

"Someone get me some wine or ale." He demanded to the nearby servants. Then, he looked over at Venus. "Look, I know this was an arranged marriage and everything but don't expect me to love you. Ever."

Venus felt someone relieved that Prince BlackScale was just as miserable as she was. For some reason, it seemed to make this whole process smoother now.

Venus huffed at him.

"Don't worry, I don't." Venus said to him.

"We still have to do our wedding night together. We just got to have sex with each other once and we ain't got to touch each other again if we don't want to. Hopefully with that one time, you'll be pregnant with my kid." he said arrogantly. Prince Blackscale looked at her up and down. "I don't know why my brother even picked you. You're so much older than me and you're so skinny too."

Venus felt appalled by what the prince said but kept her mouth shut. What would her words matter anyway. He was the heir to the throne. She may be a princess now but still she was a woman and she had no right to even defend herself.

Venus looked away from him, anger slowly consuming her. She gripped, once again, the sides of her dress and this time in anger.

"Here's your ale, my Prince." A servant said, holding up a silver tray to him. It held a glistening bottle of amber golden ale. "It is 10 years of age and it's from the private stock of the high priest here."

Prince Blackscale smiled and snatched the bottle off the silver tray. Without even thanking the servant, he ushered them away and popped the cork top off the bottle. Before he began to drown himself in the ale, he looked over at Venus again.

"Go do whatever you want." he said. "Just make sure you're back in the bed chamber before nightfall."

Venus turned away with tears almost swelling in her eyes. This marriage was not going to be as smooth as she had hoped. The prince was worse than she realized. If he treated her this way on their wedding day, who knew how worse she would be treated during when he was drunk?

"Come this way, my lady, we can get you into your reception dress." A handmaiden said, guiding her to the dressing room.

Once in a dressing room, Venus was shown a long beautiful purple dress. it was a simple dress meant for the reception party. short ruffly looking sleeves attached to a V-Neck dress. a large round white gemstone was planted on the dress where it would meet between her breasts. the dress was long so it would go all the way downtown I her ankles. A mesh purple curtain went over the skirt of her dress as well. The dress itself was beautiful but Venus could find no strength within her to wear it.

She shook her head.

"Actually, I think I'll skip my wedding reception." she said to the handmaidens.

The women's eyeballs went wide and looked shocked. They froze in place.

"My lady, are you sure?" one of them asked.

"I'm sure. I'm so sorry if you went through any trouble to prepare my dress but I think I'll just take myself a hot bath and return to my home." Venus explained. "We'll be leaving tomorrow morning for the Salazar kingdom castle and I should get plenty of rest between now and then."

"Oh that's right!" one of the servants said, "This is your last day with us."

"Oh, I remember seeing you now!" One of the other servants said, snapping her fingers. "You were a Saintess here! I remember you helped the high priest here baptized my little brother!"

Venus smiled and nodded her head. "Yes I took apart in many baptisms."

"Oh wow," one of the servants said, "A Saintess and a Prince of the Kingdom married together! What a match indeed!"

One of the other female servants cupped her cheeks and gave a dreamy look. "Oh what I would do to go back in time and volunteer to the temple. Nowadays, saints and saintess have almost everything handed to them because of it. To be married to such a high ranked person! I'm almost jealous of you, Princess Venus!"

"Princess Venus! I would love to be your handmaid in the next life!" another servant chimed in.

Venus felt flattered by the compliments and words of her servants she did not dare to correct them on the way the things were.

She did not want to be married to royalty. She did not want to be married at all. She did not feel happy or much more blessed by the gods or the blessed mothers that she was married to the prince.

Even now more than ever, Venus was now technically the princess of the Salazar Kingdom, yet she still wished that she was a simple humble saintess of the Lilith Temple. She wished she could wake up in her own bed surrounded by her own friends. Venus wished that she could attend to morning services and help feed the homeless and unfortunate.

But none of that was ever going to happen again.