That happiness was infectious, spreading through the palace almost faster than Safiya herself. In a matter of minutes, she had rushed Sasha into the harem, put her in the capable hands of Hatice with a promise to be back very soon, and run through the hallways to the chambers of the newly married Chancellor and his wife. She entered without knocking.

"If you are not dressed at this time of day, then you must get dressed at this moment!"

Shocked by the sudden and entirely unexpected intrusion, Teres nearly fell out of bed with a shriek. "Safi! Have you never heard of knocking?" she asked, as she drew the covers up over both her and her new husband's nudity. It wasn't hard to imagine what they'd been doing when they'd been interrupted and in the middle of the day.

"I have, but I decided to ignore it for today," Safiya declared cheerfully, nodding to Ezra, who was speechless with laughter underneath the sudden pile of bed sheets his wife was piling on top of him. "You must get up, and you, too, Chancellor. There is to be a wedding in just under an hour!"

"A wedding?" Teres echoed, piling as many coverings as she could find to hide her husband from view. "Have you lost your mind" The wedding was yesterday. We have not even been out of the bedchamber yet," she argued, wondering what had gotten into her friend.

"Sasha is getting married," Safiya informed her friend happily, pulling open chests to find clothing for Teres. "To Commander el Bashir. In one hour." She gestured for her friend to stand up. "Come, come, get dressed. I have seen everything you have before, after all."

From beneath the bed covers, Ezra lost control of his laughter and guffawed at the ridiculous situation he found himself in.

"Safiya Teliran," Teres said, somehow managing to tug a sheet away from Ezra to wrap around herself as she slid out of bed. "I will not have you barging into our private quarters and ..." She trailed off, her anger evaporating as something her friend had said sunk in. "Sasha is getting married?" she asked. "In an hour" To that ....ruffian?"

"Yes." Safiya waved the garments at Teres impatiently, though her face was wreathed in smiles. "She asked for it, and arranged to stay in the harem with me on the nights when I am there so I will not be lonely."

"Oh, so I see it is Sasha who has lost her mind," Teres remarked with a sigh, though she had wasted no time in claiming Ezra for herself. Then again, she had known Ezra since she'd been a child, and Sasha had only met the commander a day or so ago. "Close your eyes then," she told her friend.

After giving her friend very pointed look, Safiya gave in, setting down the clothes and turning her back rather than closing her eyes. "I am assured he is not such a ruffian as he seems," she commented, glad to hear Ezra speak up from the bed.

"Idris is rough around the edges, askim, that is all," he informed his wife, grinning as he pulled his head out from under the covers. "As is Sasha, to some extent."

"Go, go!" Teres urged, giving her handsome husband a shove. "Get dressed. We only have an hour to be ready!" she told him, hoping Safi would keep her back turned. It was not her own nudity that worried her, but that of her husband. That was a view for her eyes only.

Laughing, Ezra climbed out of the bed, utterly heedless of his nudity, to catch his wife about the waist and pull her close for long kiss. "We will finish this later, sweet rose," he promised her, winking as he bent to catch up his pants and cover himself.

"You can be certain we will!" Teres promised, once he was finished kissing her. She was as excited as Safi, but her first thought was for her husband's decency. "Grab yourself some clothes and go dress somewhere else, husband," she told him, whacking him affectionately in the rear. Though these technically his chambers, she could not very well let him get dressed with Safi there watching.

"So bossy," Ezra teased, his last words before slipping into their shared dressing chamber to do just as she told him to.

Safiya giggled as she heard the door close. "Marriage suits you, Teres."

Teres smiled and sighed as Ezra stepped into the adjoining room to dress. "Ezra suits me, Safi," she corrected her friend. She had loved him for too long and thought never to see him again. She could not deny she was ridiculously happy to have become his wife. "Is Sasha really getting married?" she asked, tossing the sheet onto the bed now that it was only herself and Safi left in the room. "I thought I'd never see the day."

"She truly is," Safi assured her, perching on one of the couches to watch her friend dress. "I do not think their life together will always be the most peaceful, but they seem very well matched. And you should not feel any concern over the arrangement with staying in the harem - the commander is not in any fit state to consummate his marriage and will not be for at least a couple of weeks, by which time Nasir and I will be wed."

Safi shushed her gently as they approached the door to her current quarters, within which Hatice was likely still trying to convince Sasha to put on a different dress. "Wait until you see them together," she suggested. "I do not doubt you will see what I saw."

Teres looked doubtful but hoped Safi was right. After all, she wanted Sasha to be happy, and if there was any chance her friend could be even half as happy as she was, she would be grateful. "I will believe it when I see it," she murmured quietly.

"Yes, you will."

Safiya was very confident of that, it seemed, pushing open the door to draw Teres inside. They found Sasha in nothing but her underclothes, hugging herself and scowling at Hatice, who was busily packing everything she owned in a small chest.

"Sasha! You cannot go to your own wedding dressed like that!" Teres exclaimed, pushing into the room to take charge. She moved over to the other woman's wardrobe. "Something pretty, I think, but not too frilly."

"She wanted to wear that ratty practice gown she's been in all day," Hatice defended her actions, stepping aside to let Teres rummage through Sasha's few gowns.

"I am not the sort to dress myself up for the sake of a man who has asked me to marry him for myself and not for my looks," Sasha protested, squeaking as Safi pushed her to sit down.

"Don't be ridiculous, Sasha," Teres scolded. "He may be marrying you for yourself, but there has to be some physical attraction, too. Assuming he isn't blind. Besides, don't you want to look your best?" she asked, as she tugged a couple of dresses from her friend's wardrobe. "What do you think of these?" she asked, as she held each out in front of her.

"Kardes, you know I have never much cared what I wear," Sasha objected, barely glancing at the dresses. "It is not as thought anything intimate will happen tonight, or for some nights to come. He is injured, and ....and I am not ready."

"Oh, Sasha ....Do you not know" There are other ways of pleasing one another," Teres said, eyes sparkling with humor and maybe just a little bit lovesick. "Ezra has been teaching me," she added, in a quiet voice, her cheeks turning pink.

"Perhaps the commander will teach Sasha some of those ways tonight," Safi agreed, winking at Teres. "This one, I think," she added, gesturing toward a gown of soft mint green that could be overlaid with a lace kaftan of a similar shade. Sasha looked relieved; the gown was one she had only worn once before, but she did like it very much.

"Oh, yes, definitely the green one!" Teres agreed enthusiastically, handing Sasha the green dress, so that she could return the other one to the wardrobe. "I can hardly believe we will all be married and have husbands of our own!"

Sasha took the dress gently in her hands, rising to her feet as Safi immediately took it from her to begin stretching up and pulling it over her head. "It hardly seems real that just a few months ago we were in the Old Palace, never once dreaming we would come back here."

"Who could have expected Nasir would become king?" Teres pointed out as she moved over to help Sasha to get dressed, along with Safi. It was the late king's demise that had set everything in motion, his nephew Nasir returning to claim the throne.

"It seemed so certain that Clovis would beget a male heir from his new harem, and then ..." Safi faltered, not wanting to think about what had happened within these walls on the night Clovis had died. How many of those new suraans had been murdered in their beds, simply because they might have been carrying Clovis' heir.

"It is best not to think on it, Safi," Teres warned her friend and harem sister. "We can only be grateful to the goddess that he did not choose us," she said, shuddering a little at the thought of what had become of those Clovis had chosen. "This is a happy occasion," she reminded her friends. "We have grieved long enough."

"We have," Sasha agreed, turning to embrace Safi with one arm and Teres with the other. She was almost half a head taller than both of them, hugging them close. "And I am glad my sisters are here, or I might run away."

"Run away with the commander" Or run away to join the pirates?" Teres teased, as she, too, embraced her sisters. She wasn't sure if Sasha was doing the right thing, but the prophecy had said there would be three, and it seemed the commander was the third. If not him, who else could it be?

"It is all happening very fast," Sasha murmured. "But ....I do not think my decision would change, even if it were a year from now."

Safiya's smile rose once again, happy to hear her say that. "That is good, because we have little time now," she declared, untangling herself to hand Teres the lace kaftan.

"I never thought to see the three of us getting married and so happy," Teres said, once more expressing her feelings of awe and wonder at the small miracle that seemed to be taking place. Valentia was changing, and changing for the better, so it seemed. She took the kaftan from Safi to help Sasha into it.

Allowing Teres to help her into the overlay for her gown, Sasha smiled faintly. "You seem very happy to be wed, Teres," she commented. "He is a good husband to you?"

"Well," Teres started, a soft smile on her face as she helped Sasha into the kaftan. "It has not been long enough to say really, but he is so sweet and kind and caring, and ..." She paused a moment to exhale a sigh. "I love him, Sasha."

Sasha's fingers drew gently down Teres' cheek as she smiled at her dear friend. "I am glad for you, kardes," she said softly. "You deserve such love." She winced as Safiya began drawing a brush through her hair, twisting it back from her face as she went.

"As do you, my sister," Teres replied, just as softly, a warm smile on her face. No matter what Sasha might think of herself, her life, or the commander, Teres was hoping with all her heart, she would find with him what she had found with Ezra and Safi had with Nasir.

A few moments passed in quiet warmth between the three of them, until finally Safi lowered her hands. "There," she said, looking Sasha over thoughtfully. "What do you think, Teres?"

"Commander."

"Sasha," Idris greeted her, pausing a moment to admire the sight of her. She was even more lovely than he remembered, and she had only been away from him for an hour. Ezra and Nasir had suggested he change into more suitable clothing, his hair swept back from his face and fastened with a leather cord. He was obviously nervous, more nervous than he could ever remember being, even before battle.

Perhaps it was a good thing that the ceremony itself was so short, though it would be a good deal longer for the royal wedding soon to come. Sasha barely heard Idris' responses, let alone her own voice speaking her vows, her eyes trained on the man beside her who had chosen her as much as she had chosen him. He was handsome, and kind, if a little brusque at times, but then, so was she. They could smooth those rough edges together, or embrace them together.

This was a new adventure for both of them - a new chapter in their lives - and though Idris barely knew Sasha, he had never met another woman in all his life who intrigued and captivated him as much as she did. Perhaps it wasn't love just yet, but there was something definitely blossoming between them.

When the priestess invited Idris to kiss his new wife, Sasha froze. It wasn't intentional, yet suddenly she was very aware of everything she did not know and had not experienced, as though this first kiss might well make him change his mind about her entirely. She looked up at him, eyes wide, hoping that worry did not show.

Idris smiled at the invitation to kiss his bride, his smile just a little mischievous, dark eyes flashing with amusement. Instead of claiming her lips, he lifted her hand, his eyes meeting hers and brushed a kiss to her knuckles with warm lips and scratchy beard. Though it was his privilege to kiss and claim his new wife right there in front of the priestess and their friends, he thought she might prefer to wait until they were alone to share what would be their first kiss in the privacy of his chambers. Behind them, Nasir could be heard chuckling, amused by the way his friend accepted the priestess' invitation.

Though the moment of chivalry was a surprise, it earned for Idris his first real smile of tender softness from his new wife as Sasha leaned into him for just a moment. Her gaze softened above that smile, unaware that behind them, Safiya was gesturing to Teres and mouthing,

"See what I mean?"

Teres smiled back and nodded at Safi, pleased to see Idris and Sasha might prove her doubts and worries unfounded. All she wanted was for her friend to find the same kind of happiness that she'd found with Ezra and that Safi had found with Nasir. And there was something about Sasha's smile that tugged at Idris' heart, and he found himself smiling back at her with unexpected warmth and tenderness and even hope in his heart.

The triad that had been prophesied was complete. Valentia, after all its upheavals, now had its strong king, with his strong friends standing at his shoulders to keep the country on an even keel. And those men, with all their cares, had their lovers, their wives, the women who would share those burdens and keep them grounded, a feminine echo of the strength their men shared. Valentia would rise again.