It had been a week of preparations for Sayyida and Antares, and of separation for Atair and Eness (who had been given to Sayyida for the duration due to the circumstances and limited oases). Antares and Sayyida stand side by side where she had first proclaimed the betrothal as Voice of Wosret, the pink brother barely restraining a smile.

The winter is balmy in the Dunes and it makes the cooling night only the more exhilarating. Aldebaran can barely contain himself, Atair is more alive than he had ever seemed - even without Sakhmet’s heart to fulfill his belief. Rigel has even been abuzz, and nothing about it had led back to some historical or informational tidbit lesson.

The wedding procession was going to be small, the women all meant to be ushering the honored lady of their number to where the Sheik and his Mira stood. The brothers and the men who attend would be stood to the left of the royal patriarch and matriarch, the soon to be wed brother standing on the right.

Already they take their places, ready for the flower bedecked lady and her entourage. Antares knows that his Mira has commanded the bride price, and that Atair has paid for this night, though the price would carry well into the coming seasons.

A small set of fronds pulled from a young palm creates a bed that sits before the crowned pair and the soon-to-be husband, a single date placed in the center of the green fingered leaves. Rigel had determined that when the bride had come with her entourage, Sayyida would initiate the wedding, summoning the bride to stand before her betrothed.

"Come, bride, and speak your vow."
"I vow devotion, love, and fidelity to you, my husband. I am your Wife."

Antares would then look to the groom, and command him.

"Come, groom, and speak your vow."
"I guard the treasure of your devotion, love, and fidelity. I am your Husband."

Then Sayyida would summon the wife forward to lay beside the date and agave frond, then, saying, "You are as vital as the sustenance of the desert and as essential as the water that hides itself from all but the worthy. Lay beside them and know that, like them, without you your Husband is nothing."

And Antares would summon the husband forward to furrow a circle in the sand around all three. “You are to defend the gifts of the desert. You surround your wife with every drop of blood and every ounce of power given you by the gods. You do this to acknowledge the worth of your Wife.“

Then Eness would lift the date with her lips, offering him half as she consumed the other. A symbol of hoped-for fruitfulness shared between them in the future.

Then together, as she was not a Lesser Wife, the ruling pair would say, “Let the Husband lay his mark on his chosen First Wife, naming her Queen of his Household.” And Atair’s most dreaded moment of their wedding would come. He would set his teeth into her withers so that she would be marked as his First Wife. He would leave that mark there and when she had given him a son, she would present the child to him and have earned the right to set her teeth into his. The future reciprocation was all that kept him from revolting when Antares had determined to keep the tradition.

All this had been gone through with the couple by their respective guides, but what was left to be seen was their own attendance to these new traditions made from the old ones and the celebration due to come thereafter.

As it was, Atair stands there looking out into the throng of women who bar his view of Eness initially. A small chuckle is barely stifled by the reddest of the brothers, silenced entirely by a sharp look from Antares. It was no small thing for Atair to leave himself so vulnerable… it was not the time to tease him for his anticipatory gaze. He does turn to Sayyida then, however, murmuring softly - "You deserved this sort of wedding, Beautiful One. I am glad we can give them this." His face lets slip a small smile, and then he turns to see Eness come fully to the gathering, parting her way through her entourage at last.