"Thank you Ser Ben" Sharra said politely.

"Vandrose!" Sharra called out and rushed to give her brother a hug. "It's good to see you." After the hug, she stood back and curtsied "My lord." She must remember her manners. What does a maiden have, but her manners and her honor?

She giggled. "Well, you should have known better than to challenge me. Making shapes with string is too much like making shapes with thread for me to fail at it."

"Hello, Bryden. No, I don't think I do" she answered.

As they were standing there talking, near the small sept and the more well-appointed training grounds, Maester Artos hurried towards them in his rough robe and his puny chain.

"Mylord. Mylady." he said and bowed to Vandrose and Sharra. "We have received a raven from our liege." He gave the small scroll with the impressions of a falcon and a crescent moon in the blue wax to Vandrose.

“My, Artos, you are quick.” Vandrose’s said as the maester hurried toward them. “Take a moment to catch your breath. Then you can read it out loud to us if you’d like, or simply hand it over if you think the message is of a sensitive nature?”

"You never know if it is sensitive until you have read it," Artos said. "But as you command." He opened it and read it silently. He then spoke aloud.

"Lord Arryn commands that we arrange the wedding of Perryanne Corbray and Darke Melcolm two months hence. We should make all arrangements, including a hunt. The Corbrays will pay for the wedding. The two Houses have already agreed to the union." Artos then handed the opened scroll to Vandrose.


[OOC:
Some information that your characters know.
* The Corbrays and the Melcolms have been rivals for years and Lord Arryn apparently needs a third party to host the wedding.
* Your sept is not large enough for a wedding such as this.
* The Shepherds have the largest sept in the Vale.
* But you can house more guests than they can.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:06, Sat 08 Aug 2020.

"A wedding, how wonderful! That should be lovely, the feasts, the dancing." Sharra gushed. "That's just what we need after these, these miserable times."

Vandrose pondered over the situation. “How should we best prepare for this wedding? Even though we can host more guests than any of our neighbors, our sept is not large enough to do such a ceremony justice. I doubt the participants will want to lodge here and ride all the way to another house just for the wedding and then want to ride all the way back just to have a place to sleep.”

"Is there a third option," Artos asked? "Something here, but not in our sept?"

“Is it permissible to have a wedding out doors in a garden?” Vandrose asked the advice of all those gathered there. “If that would not be considered an insult or classless, we could decorate a garden with finery fit for a king.”

"I think it would be best to ask Septon Arlan about that," Artos said.

"We only need to arrange it" Sharra pointed out. "We don't necessarily need to have it here. Although I do love gardens."

"I may have not conveyed Lord Arryn's intentions very well," Artos said. "It seems he expects us to host it. So the various locations couldn't be too far from here."

"Oh!" Sharra said, pouting a little that her idea didn't work. "I suppose I shall ask the Septon if the garden is suitable. It's not nearly enough time to expand the Sept, is it?" She didn't think so, but what she knew about construction could be put on the head of a pin, so that didn't mean much.

"Unfortunately not," Artos said. "It would take at least a year to build a sept that large. Perhaps even more. And I don't think we'd get away with hosting any portion of the festivities further away than on Cragborn lands. And even that might be too far, unless we can make the journey part of the festivities in some way."

The two Sylvayn siblings and Maester Artos didn't have to go very far to get to the Septon's quarters.

They went around the small sept and up a small set of stairs to a roofed outdoor corridor leading from the sept into a building where the clergy, among others, lived. It was built in typical Vale architecture and two levels up and a couple of corridors away, they came to his door. There were noises coming from the other side of the door.

"Septon Arlan?" Sharra called out, her voice respectful and deferential. "May we see you?"

The noises stopped.

"I'll be right there," the Septon said.

It took a couple of minutes.

A 16-year-old servant opened the door.

"Milord. Milady." she said and curtsied for the two Sylvayns before she left.

"How can I be of assistance," old Septon Arlan asked, standing before them in full Septon dress

“Good day, Septon.” Vandrose said in greeting. “I hope that we are not disturbing you, but we find ourselves in a unique situation. Lord Arryn has requested that we host a wedding, and we were wondering if it would be suitable protocol to have the event outdoors in the gardens.”

Vandrose looked around curiously as he awaited the answer.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:53, Wed 12 Aug 2020.

"Not at all mylord," Arlan said. "Weddings are not ordinarily performed outdoors. But it wouldn't be the first time it happened. From what I understand, even royalty has been married outdoors. But those were generally smaller affairs. But yes, even large weddings between important nobility has been conducted outdoors in the past. The more naturally beautiful the site, the better."

Sharra curtsied to the Septon when he appeared; you could never show God's representative too much respect. "Septon Arlan, it is good to see you" she said respectfully. She perked up when hearing that the more beautiful the area, the better. "Oh, that's perfect! We'll plant flowers!"

Vandrose tried to keep his face neutral as realization filled his brain. “Thank you, Septon Arlan. This is beneficial news indeed. We will have to begin preparing the gardens right away. I am sure that there are a number of different decorating choices that we can make to make this a most memorable and suitable wedding.”

"Of course mylord," Arlan said. "I am here to serve. Is there anything else mylord or mylady needs?"

“No, just the question of protocol.” Vandrose smiled. “We should probably let you get back to your day and begin planning out the event. I am sure Sharra will have a million ideas to put forth before all is said and done.”

Vandrose turned to his sister.“What do you say? Are you already envisioning everything down to the cutlery?”

"Nothing for me at this time, Septon Arlaon" Sharra said. Actually, she'd like him to prepare, but a maiden didn't give orders to a septon of the Seven.

"And who are getting married," the septon asked.

The siblings and the maester left the Septon's quarters having informed him of who the "happy" couple would be and securing a promise that Arlan would officiate at the wedding. After which he continued his day of ministering to his flock.