Reaching the Great Hall the lines reunited as the High Priest and High Priestess school the boys on what was expected of them; changing the normal ceremony not at all except to change the genders.
Jaysen had feared that neither one of these people would approve of this ceremony as they were always going on about sacred relationships between a man and a woman, but he could tell by little signals they were giving ff that both were extremely happy to be doing this for them.
Both of the heads of the temples hugged the boys as they finished and rushed to their places at the front of the temple. Standing over the lit censer the High Priestess raised her hands to the Lord and Lady. “Lord and Lady, You have made the bond of marriage a holy mystery, a symbol of your love for us. Hear our prayers for Jaysen and Shon as they moe forward through this spiritual growth.” She continued after a pause, “With abiding faith You, and continuing faith in each other, the will pledge their love today. May their lives always bear witness to the reality of that love. We make this prayer in the name of all that is.” “So mote it be.” The crowd responded except Kolos who was looking on at the ceremony in confusion as she tried to figure out who they were praying to. She knew it wasn’t her but there wasn’t another goddess she was aware of in charge of these ceremonies.
Picking up the censer she started to walk a circle around the two boys. Chanting, “Creature of fire, this charge I lay no discord in Thy presence stay hear my will addressed to Thee, as I do will, so mote it be!” A drum sounded while the priestess put down the censer and began to walk the circle once again chanting, “Creature of earth, where Thou art cast, let no adverse purpose last, not in complete accord with me, as I do will, so mote it be!” Turning to the east having finished her circle the priestess called. “Powers of East, Powers of Air, I call thee forth.” A priest standing in the East raised a censer of incense for all to see and called out. “Hail, Guardians of the East! Come forth and bear witness to Jaysen and Shon, who have come to know great love for one another. Hail and Welcome!” he turns and bows to the east, turns again and sets down the censer.
Turning to the South the Priestess says, “Powers of South, Powers of Fire, I call thee forth.” A Priestess standing in the south raises a candle for all to see and chants, “Hail, Guardians of the South! Come forth and bear witness to Shon and Jaysen, who will make a daring leap together into partnership. Hail and welcome!” she turns and bows to the South, turns again and replaces the candle on the altar.
Turning to the West the Priestess chants, Powers of West, Powers of Water, I call thee forth.” A priest standing in the West holding up a container of water for all to see chants, “Hail, guardians of the West! Come forth and bear witness to Jaysen and Shon, whose mutual intention is to marry one another, in this place and at this time. Hail and Welcome!” Turning to the West the Priestess chants, “Powers of North, Powers of Earth, I call thee forth.” Pouring soil into a bowl and holding it up for all to see the priest in the North chants, “Hail, guardians of the North! Come forth and bear witness to Shon and Jaysen, who wait upon this time of great joy, with steadfastness and quiet assurance. Hail and welcome!” Kneeling before the altar the priestess lights the Lady candle and chants “Great Mother, whom I serve, please be here now as Jaysen and Shon intend to join one another in the sacrament of marriage.” Lighting the Lord candle she bowed her head once more chanting, “Beloved Father, whom I adore, please be here now as Shon and Jaysen intend to join one another in the sacrament of marriage.” Turning to the boys with a smile she called the blessing on to them, “Gracious Lady, Gentle Lord. Grant Your blessing and protection upon these two, who have come before You, to celebrate the sacrament of marriage in the presence of their People. So mote it be!” “Love is an integral part of life, for without the spark of love, there is nothing to empower the mystery of continuance, and without continuance, all life will cease to be. This is how we came to be, and now we are gathered here together because our parents, and our parent's parents, and so on before them, felt that spark, and empowered that continuance, and made it possible for us to be who we have become. So it is today that, in the presence of the People, in the power of the Ancient Providence, in the abiding love of the Lord and Lady, Shon and Jaysen are about to marry one another, and share that spark of love with one another, and perhaps in this moment we too will feel its passage, and again participate in that mystery of continuance that becomes life itself. Shon and Jaysen wish to declare, in our sight, their formal intent to share their lives. In this day and age, many people do not feel the need to make such a declaration, and yet many more still do, for they remain aware of the presence of the mystery that underlies the sacrament of marriage, and they value this presence, and so they make their decision and act upon it as Shon and Jaysen are about to do. The one which matters most is love, the abiding yet surprising, practical yet passionate, mirthful yet reverent love -- the difficult and complicated sort of love that we have to grow into. Marriage is a place where we can learn from each other about that love. Let Shon and Jaysen be not afraid to turn to us all for help when they need it. By coming here together to this wild and wonderful place we demonstrate that we are willing to stand by them as they consummate their great decision. And even though none of us, least of all them, can see what is to come, let us all encourage them as they go forward in hope, trusting in the Gods, the People, and each other. Shon and Jaysen are most evidently not afraid of adventure -- look where they are standing today. Together they embrace the uncertainty of adventure, awaiting the surprising discoveries which they shall make. Love, this spark of life, is the greatest adventure of all.”

After the ceremony the four royals withdrew to a private dinner in the king’s room. It had been Jaysen’s idea though it went against tradition. He thought it would be best to give people as few chances as possible to notice their bond though both of them wanted to shout to all the world about it they both knew it would be safer for Shon if for the moment they didn’t.
Though really after an elaborate ceremony like that one which none of them had been expecting there would be few that hadn’t noticed as they had been standing hand in hand in front of the crowd the whole time, someone was bound to have noticed.
“When are you two leaving?” King Jerrold asked.
“Tomorrow morning as soon as I wake up I will start to build the gate. Tonight I will be dropping major shielding over my room to dull the senses of what’s going on inside. Before I leave I am going to seal my room behind so many layers no one will be able to get in so they won’t be able to trace us by using the residue.” .”How will we trace you?” Kolos asked “You won’t.” Jaysen said with a shrug. “That’s the whole point no one is supposed to be able to find us and I will personally block every magical means I can think of.” “How are we supposed to know your ok?” “Well if you go to look for us magically and all you see is corpses you know we are not ok.” “Jaysen!” his father said warningly.
“What?! If you can find us others can too.” “You know so many things are you telling me you can’t think of a single way we can checkup on you that other people wouldn’t be able to get their hands on.” “Fine!” Jaysen said getting up from the table he walked over to a blank wall and held up his hands. Soon both he and the wall were glowing the puling beat of the glow making everyone in the room a little dizzy as they watched. After a few minutes a large mirror covered most of the wall and Jaysen called both the older people over after he let the glow fade from around himself. “Touch the wall with your magic both of you.” He ordered angrily.
When they did the mirror flashed and what had been blank before showed a reflection of the room from the other side and Jaysen put his hand on the mirror once again sealing the spell. “Only the two of you will be able to activate this mirror. You can do it separately or together it doesn’t matter but only you two will be able to work it so do not ask someone else to try to activate it you would not like what will happen if someone does try.” “What will happen?” “They will be drained of their power whatever race they happen to be. God, Goddess, Vylerian, Human it wont matter they will lose their power the second it touches that glass.” “That’s not possible. You don’t have that kind of authority.” Kolos said incredulously “I actually do as the prince of my people I have the right to strip anyone of lower rank of their power if I feel they have given me a reason. I have no intention of stripping my father of his power. And as the God of Magic I have the right to strip the powers from any mortal or immortal actually.” “Who told you that?” “Well actually the former God of Magic did.” “He’s been dead for centuries. He was dead before your father asked us if he build this realm.” She said waving a hand to indicate the area around them.
“Yes but when I got the title I got his memories and his old home which I visited he kept it well stocked with the rules of being him as if he knew he was going to get killed.”

The next morning working behind the strongest shields he had ever built with Shon still asleep in the bed beside him he slowly built up the gate it would take to move them both to the mortal world. Slowly because of the amount of power it took to tear the wall between worlds open even just enough for two people to slip through.
Shon stirred beside him feeling the growing power in the room and the stuffiness that told him none of it was escaping through the shields he had watched Jaysen build before they went to sleep the night before. Sitting up he looked over at the Gate, to him it looked more like a heavy stone archway with an iron bound door then a gate. “Why does it look like a big door?” Pausing for a second Jaysen indicated he would answer when he was done and continued to build beyond the door. Finally with a snap audible all over the castle the gate was finished and Jaysen was moving to get dressed as he explained. “It has a physical appearance because it is far more powerful gate then normal I think only an Archmage could build one like this I figured since I was locking my room up anyways we might as well have a way to get back to it and this is how. That will stay there for as long as I am alive and both of us can come back tot his room just by summoning the archway though no one else will be able to use it. Later if we need to we can add other destinations to it. I’m going to need to rest when we get there that archway was harder to build then I thought it would be, I guess now I know why he never tried it.” Picking up what he had packed the night before Shon looked at him strangely. “Who never tried it?” “The Old God of Magic I found the spell in one of his grimoires but I could never find any mention or memory of him trying to use it. Except a side note that it would take far too much to power it so it wasn’t worth the trouble.” “You built a spell a God said was too powerful to make it worth the trouble?” “Yes. I had to think of something a normal gate would have gotten us there but we would have had to build a new one every time we needed something from my room. This took a lot of power but it will save us power later it takes barely a whisper to call it up and we can set as many destinations in it as we like so long as we are standing where we want a destination to be.” Pushing on one side of the door he waited while it opened enough for both of them to walk through and stepped through to the mortal world looking around at the clearing he had landed in. he had used his mirror yesterday to find a clearing close to where his brother lived and knew this place would be safe for a few hours while he rested and ate a little to regain some energy.
Putting his bags down he watched as Shon sat down on the dirt near the fading archway. Watching it disappear for a second he walked over to Shon and laid down resting his head in Shon’s lap. Feeling Shon’s hands start to massage his temples he closed his eyes and tried to think about how they would approach the castle his brother lived in.
A couple of hours later five horses pounded into the clearing, as the two boys looked up they saw a young boy who was obviously a noble of some kind staring down at them. the scarlet-clad noble was surround by grim looking guards who stared down at the two boys with s sneer painted across their faces.
“My Lord, I think it would be better if we left this clearing these boys seem like they don’t want company to….” “Jaysen?” the young noble asked cutting off the guard who looked annoyed that the noble could possibly think he knew these people.
“Pitr?” Jaysen said really looking at the noble for the first time. “Well don’t you look like a court dandy. What are you doing this far out in the woods?” All four guards nervously glanced at each other as they each tried to decide if their lord would be lenient when he found out about this.
Ignoring the guards as completely as Jaysen did the young noble climbed down from his horse hugging his brother tightly. “It has been quite a long while since you have come to visit me I don’t think my guards here know who you are.” “Guards?” Jaysen asked looking confused for a second until his eyes fell on the other four horses. “Oh them well I don’t really care what they think.
Sighing his brother looked at the guards apologetically “You have never been very good to the guards or servants around my father’s house.” “I’ve never been bad to them either they just don’t interest me at all.” One of the guards looking insulted threw a large metal ball at Jaysen hoping to break something or at least knock the air out of this over bearing lord. The guard trembled in fear as the rock bounced off the air a foot from where the lord was standing and his eyes locked onto the guard that had thrown the rock.
Seeing the fear in the guards eyes, Pitr turned to his brother to tell him to leave the guard alone as he hadn’t seen the stone thrown at Jaysen, but the look in Jaysen’s eyes told him clearly not to interfere.
“I am going to pretend this time that your hand slipped, Guard. Do not ever attack me again or you will have serious problems.” Letting loose a burst of energy from his palm he blew up several near by rocks.
“Oh my Gods,” Jaysen said ignoring the exclamations of the mortals, “I forgot my familiar. He is probably so angry right now.” He said running over to the Door he had just re-summoned and pushing his way through. He found his familiar throwing a hissing door clawing fit on the other side and grabbed him just in time to keep him from damaging anything in the room.
“How could you leave me behind like that?” the dragon hissed angrily at him feebly trying to claw his arm through the leather sleeve he was wearing.
“I’m sorry little one I didn’t even think about it till someone threw a rock at me.” Jaysen said apologetically.
“Fifty people have tried to enter your room since you left you know. Some of them even magically; None of them got past even the first seal there is a crowd outside your door even now. They are worried something happened to you cause when you built that thing a magical snap went through the world.” Sending his shielded mind out he scanned the crowd for his father, not finding him there he searched the whole castle till he found him in his room having breakfast with Kolos as a distressed mage-apprentice told them all about how the Princes were missing.
Father, tell these people outside my door to leave it alone if they break one of these seals some of them might not survive it.
You put dangerous seals like that within my castle where everyone can get their hands on them.
They can neither read the seals nor individually break them but with the crowd gathered out there they maybe able to break the first and second.
Dangerous?
Very! They are about to try again hurry!
The mage-apprentice stared as his King jumped out of his chair and ran for the door he had never seen one of the royals run. His mouth gaped open as the King disappeared before hitting the door. Kolos walked into the hallway looking down the long passageway she tried to see where the King had gone but he had completely disappeared.
“Damn I wanted to follow him,” she told the apprentice. “I don’t know the way to Jays room real well.” “Oh he is probably already there even though it isn’t close. The King and Prince can teleport anywhere in Vyleria they want to go in the blink of an eye. That’s why it surprised me when he ran to the door. Something I said must have startled him enough that he forgot to teleport.” The Queen of the Gods nodded absently not really paying attention she had felt the presence of her son-in-law talking to the King for a split second, and had felt him in the castle until just a few seconds ago. She knew it was nothing this boy said that had made the King run like that. She just wished she knew why though she was determined to ask him when he got back.

Jaysen rushed back across the Door in case someone did manage to break one of the seals he did not want to be anywhere near what was going to happen. His room was protected by shields and the rest of the seals but he really didn’t want to be around his father when he saw the damage to the rooms around it.
The mortals gasped as Jaysen burst through the door carrying a dragon. They had thought he was just waiting in the archway as they could tell it was just a door there was nothing on the other side.
“Get down!” Jaysen yelled throwing shields around the clearing, randomly covering everything he could. Jumping he knocked Shon, who had stood there gaping at him to the floor, his brother and most of the guards were already down. They didn’t know what was going on but they weren’t asking questions when a mage told them to get down.
Out of the Archway fire flowed covering the whole clearing stopping only where Jaysen had thrown his shielding in a circle. His shields blocked the heat protecting the mortals and immortals alike from the searing pain it would have caused. All, except the last guard who had not dropped to the floor like he had been told all the shielding had been thrown just above where they were laying so the fire would flow over them not at them. The last guard still believing the Archway was just a wooden door with a stone frame had not dived for the floor. Climbing slowly to his feet Jays walked over to the Archway and kicked the somewhat charred door closed in case those fools tried to break another one he wasn’t sure if they could but if the fire from this one was that big he really didn’t want to see what would happen on a more powerful seal.
“I am sorry about your guard Pitr, afraid he didn’t listen very well.” Looking down at his dragon he smiled at the look of bliss on its face. “Now I know you enjoyed the fire bath but some of us aren’t covered in those thick beautiful scales.” Looking up at his brother to tell him it wasn’t his fault he thought of something else as his eyes fell on the glowing mark on his brother’s cheek. “Since when have you had a dragon, I assume that’s what that is from the tales of them? and what is that mark on your cheek.?” “Well they are sort of tied together. The mark is the symbol of perthro and is what a mage gets when they advance to Archmage. They also get a familiar and a whole lot more power.” Jaysen finished kneeling down to wrestle with the baby dragon.
“How much use is a baby dragon as a familiar though I thought most familiars came full grown?” “They do but this dragon will be far more use to me later then a full grown familiar would be now. I don’t need a familiar at all and only conjured one because it is the final test. This little guy will grow up useful in a few years though.” Glancing up at his brother through his long hair he asked. “Why are you out of the fortress? And what’s with the guards? You don’t usually take guards when you go riding.” Without waiting for Pitr to answer one of the guards stepped forward. “Lord Pitr is being escorted to his maternal grandfather’s estate where he will spend the years learning sword play and how to govern a kingdom as his grandfather has decided he should be his heir. His Lordship has also been placed under punishment by his father for back talking and is to take this trip in seclusion so I’m afraid we must ask you to leave.” “Ask away I have no intention of moving very far from his side.” “My Lord has sent orders along that nobody is to accompany the young lord!” the guard near-yelled looking to the others for support. The others though were looking at the pile of ash that had been their comrade before and backing slowly away from Jaysen as if he might suddenly decide to loose such a blast again.
“Fortunately for me I far outrank your lord both in my own Vyleria and in this kingdom due to a treaty signed by my father and your king. So I really could care less if your lord ordered me anywhere he doesn’t have the rank to make me do anything.” Leaning in to whisper in his lover’s ear Shon asked, “Is that true, love?” “Of course, never set your way of travel on a lie, Shon if as I suspect he is going to run back to his lord or send someone to do it and the lord says I don’t outrank him and said guard comes back. They could rightfully return with enough force to make us leave. If I do outrank him, and I do, then the lord has no choice but to let us stay.” “He could still order me to leave I don’t have mortal rank like you.” “You do you just haven’t realized it yet.” Jays said with a laugh as he watched one of the lower ranking guardsmen running off to the east clearly heading back to the manor just barely visible ion the horizon. “Don’t worry about it, love, even if we didn’t have mortal rank it is rather hard to run off two gods even with an army of mages.” “Not that many mages would be stupid enough to attack you.” Shon said with a laugh as the two of them turned back to Pitr.
“Shall we go?” Jaysen asked squeezing Shon’s hand behind his back where the mortals wouldn’t notice.
“Sure.” Pitr said turning his horse back to the west as he climbed gracefully onto its back. “Don’t you think you will need some horses to keep up with us?” “We could probably keep up with you running but you are right we may need horses.” Jaysen said turning to Shon he started to explain how to conjure live beasts as Pitr continued talking behind him. He didn’t hear most of what his brother said until he coughed and the lovers looked up to see what he wanted.
“Would you like me to send someone back for horses?” he repeated rather annoyed at being ignored though he really couldn’t tell what they had been talking about.
“No.” Jays said shortly turning back to Shon to finish his explanation so that only Shon noticed the glare Pitr directed at him.
“Think you can do it, or you want me to get the first time and help you along with the second?” “We can always try how much could I screw it up after all?” “Not much watch me first and then just follow what I do.” Turning to the left Jaysen pointed a finger at a space a few feet in front of himself and concentrated on the shape of a horse.
Soon everyone in the clearing could see a jewel-like horse appearing where he was pointing and Shon watched as Jays added attributes to the horse. Speed, brainpower and grace being just a few of the things he added knowing that he would need this horse for awhile. Lastly he gave it thought speech. He knew he would have to add that to Shon’s since he wouldn’t be able to give whole gifts on his own yet.
Shon copied what Jays had done down to the last thing until he came up on adding thought speech when he felt Jaysen roll in and add it. He sent a questing thought asking why.
I simply wasn’t sure if you could add it or not, love.
Ah I am not sure if I could do it either.
We will practice it later. Should confuse many mortals if we give thought speech to a rock or something. Jaysen told him climbing into the saddle he had conjured from his fathers stables. As he watched to see if Shon knew how to ride it occurred to him how little he actually knew about his husband.
When they were both mounted they turned back to the still gaping mortals. “We are ready now.” Coughing uncomfortably, his brother had never shown that much power in front of him before, Pitr kicked his horse into a run setting off once more for his grandfather’s estate. The party followed closely by the two jewel-toned horses of the two immortals headed into the wilderness as Jaysen and Shon spent the time in each others minds trying to learn more about each other even though they had felt like they had known each other forever.

A couple nights later, bored of the endless wilderness, Jaysen asked, “How long is this trip going to take, Pitr?” “I don’t know two or three months.” “Well then we will meet you there. I have a few things I need to teach him and we have a place we need to build for safety.” Turning his glare away from Shon a moment he smiled at Jays saying, “Okay Jays, we will see you when we see you.” “Yea and you still have that necklace so call me if something big comes up.” Jaysen said guiding his horse the side of the road Shon following slowly behind him as he felt Jaysen calling up the archway which appeared in the road as Pitr’s rear guard disappeared in the distance.
“What necklace? I thought this thing only went to your room.” Shon said pointing at the slightly glowing archway.
“When we were younger I conjured a necklace around his neck. If he holds it and says my name three times it sends out a call for me that I answer right away no matter what I am doing. It was my response to the time he fell off a small cliff and couldn’t call me to help and I told you when I built it this archway can have as many destinations as we want as long as we can set them.” “No you said we had to stand there and build the destination into it which we haven’t done.” “No but where we go now there isn’t anything physical for the archway to latch onto. Not yet anyway.” “Not yet?” “Ah well I figure we will try our hands at world building probably nothing huge but big enough to hold the two of us and whatever else we may want. Stand back a bit please I don’t know how it will react to this.”