The Joining of the Crowned Paths

From Collected Addresses, Notes, and Observances of The Consecrated Hierogamic Union of the Crowned Houses of Wharcer and Yadrios, The Archive.

Composed for the occasion by Seldren the Elder, serving as Royal Poet and Orator.

Hear me, you gathered in light and in laughter and lifted goblets;
Hear me, for words have their hour, and this is appointed their moment.
These are not verses for courts yet unborn nor crowns yet untested,
These are the words for this couple, this night, this binding.
Wine moves among us, and candles have taken the place of the sun.

You who bear witness to this joining tonight;
Let it be spoken for them alone, and for no other hour.

Older than banners the land has endured in its patient remaining,
Older than titles the stones bear the weight of uncounted decisions.
Rivers remember the vows that were sworn at the edge of their crossing,
Holding the truth of our bridges when names have weathered to silence.

Once there were pathways that turned from each other and could not be joined here,
Lines cut in soil and defended as though they were living.
Crowns then were carried as warnings, and hands were extended for measuring,
Trust was a distance to cross, not a gift freely granted.

Let it be spoken for them alone, and for no other hour.

Years came, as years always come, not in fire but careful in footfall,
Marked by the keeping of ledgers and bells that were rung for the fallen.
The fields were tilled and bore fruit in the turning of seasons,
Watchfires were fed through the night, and the night did not break them.

From such endurance were customs made steady and shaped into usage,
Fear gave its place to the weight of a rule that could answer resistance.
Voices grew wise in the choosing of when they must answer with firmness,
When they must listen and wait for the world to be ready.

Let it be spoken for them alone, and for no other hour.

So it was not by design that this joining was fashioned,
Nor by the patience of years that this union was sought.
Time had prepared the ground through counsel and quiet agreement,
Yet it was love that at last made the long paths meet.

Name them, then, plainly, as history will require of the telling:
Here stand the two for whom the Crown shall rest on one, the other sworn to support it.
Here stand the hands that have chosen to answer the realm together,
Here stand Therya of Wharcer and Alerion of Yadrios, whom this day has bound as one.

You who bear witness to this joining tonight;
Let it be spoken for them alone, and for no other hour.

Look now and see it: the Crown is no longer a shield held in warning,
Neither is it made thin by the sharing of rightful authority.
Here it is answered, not taken, and steadied by promise well spoken,
Worn as a charge, not a weapon.

This is not ending nor triumph nor rest from the labor of keeping.
This is the hinge on the door of the years, and it turns without thunder,
Bearing the weight of the days that will test what is promised this evening,
As all true promises must be tested.

Let it be spoken for them alone, and for no other hour.

From this same table will rise the decisions that wait for their naming,
Days yet unborn will be shaped by the vows that were spoken before us.
Hope will be measured by weather and want and the patience of governing,
As it has always been measured.

So let it be said, and remembered with care in the seasons that follow:
No realm is made strong by perfection of outset or ease of beginning,
Only by endings chosen with care and beginnings made honest,
Only by futures accepted with open eyes.

Let it be spoken for them alone, and for no other hour.

Drink now, then, first to the past that has borne us to stand here together.
Drink to the hands that laid down their pride for the good of the many.
Drink to the Crown they now keep and the path that unfolds from this moment,
Waiting beyond the great door.

May it be walked without haste and defended with measured restraint.
May it be held in the telling when years have made strangers of faces.
May it be said, when this night has grown distant in memory's keeping:

This was spoken for them.
This was spoken for this joining.
This was spoken for this hour.