The Clocks

On Saturday some of the participants were ready to charge ahead, while others were wishing for more time. Among the latter were those who had planned the wedding, and, especially, the reception. The former consisted of Mario, Eugenia, and all the invited guests. Among the guests the reasons were as varied as they were, ranging from simply enjoying going to wedding receptions, to looking upon receptions as good places to make and maintain business connections.

In keeping with the "frugality" part of The City's motto, Robert had negotiated a substantial discount on the rental fee for the reception hall, citing both the slowness of the season and the expected heat at that time of year. In the process he managed to convince the manager of the facility that he was doing him a favor by renting it at all.

It was true that the temperature in the first week of September, even this far north, could be extremely warm. The City was built of stone and had limited green spaces, even allowing for the Ring Park and the unusually large number of gardens for a city its size. Fortunately, given the break in the caldera to the south, cool breezes flowed down from the mountains most every day, starting in the mid to late afternoon.

Thus, while the wedding was scheduled to take place at 10 a.m., the reception would not begin until seven in the evening. The timing was unusual, but had pleased the manager of the reception hall. It was legal to serve wine and ale after 6 p.m. at events in public meeting halls, and he hoped to make up for the reduced rental fee by selling as many drinks as possible before they closed at 11. It was likely that very few attendees would notice, or even care, that the newlyweds would have left by nine.

The wedding went swimmingly for all concerned. Like that for the trio, it was held in the conservatory at the Donetti home. All the potted plants that could be moved had been arranged around the periphery, providing a lush background for the cermony, which was performed by Bishop Lundgren of the Church of the Placid Heart. He was Paolo's superior, Miranda's close friend, and an exceptionally effective spy when the occasion demanded.

As was traditional, there were few guests. Alicia and Aldus RIngvold stood for Mario. The rest were Eugenia's best friends, Sara and Paolo, Jason and the twins, and Miranda's sister Anna and her husband Richard -- Robert's older brother. The group was completed by Genie's, Jason's, and the twins' parents -- who had become almost as inseparable as the trio.

At first it was planned that Eugenia and Mario would use her room, but, what with all the cleaning being done, a long-forgotten doorway had been found at the back of the house. On the other side was a space that had probably been used as a storeroom of some sort in the distant past. Currently most of the contents were ancient cobwebs.

It was a bit far away from the rest of the house, but it was remarkably spacious. There were some high windows that gave good light, and there was a smaller room to the side that would serve nicely as a combination dressing room and office. Finding it had been an incredible stroke of luck. It would also allow Stavros and Consuela to have separate bedrooms, which had been becoming a worry what with them having just turned 11 three weeks earlier.

When Kaho had inspected the room, she allowed as how cleaning it, and moving in the necessary furniture (or at least helping) would be excellent therapy for Mario. Mimi and Sven had, of course, been willing to undertake the necessary work, but they mutually sighed in relief when they heard Kaho's decision. They already had very busy schedules, and adding the extra work would have made some things rather difficult to complete as quickly as they were accustomed to doing.

Thus it was that, unlike most newlyweds, these were busy cleaning and arranging for several hours after the wedding. They barely had time for a bath and a nap before they had to dress for the reception. The bath of course was a perfect time to, ah, shall we say, "get better acquainted," but they forbore on the grounds that looking totally exhausted at their reception would not be a very good idea. It would get the tongues of the several gossips who would be attending wagging overtime.

The parents had discussed, and cleared with Eugenia and Mario, the attendance of Stavros, Conseula, Rebecca, and Guiseppi at the reception. They were deemed just old enough to begin to learn more about adult activities. Robert was still too young and his introduction to such formal affairs would have to wait a while yet.

All of them were on their best behavior, being grateful to be treated as, not quite adults, but as children who were old enough to be included without constant supervision.

Oh, Stavros and Consuela had their usual minor disagreements and bickered occasionally, but an observer would have noted that there were also times where they held hands and had rather wistful expressions. It was as if they were beginning to realize that one day they too would be marrying and would no longer be able to count on seeing each other every day.

As planned, Mario and Eugenia slipped out of the hall at nine, accompanied by Yoko, Hibiki, and Jason, who were also headed home for some private time together. The younger children had all insisted that they were just fine and "not sleepy at all." Their parents had agreed. They'd be easier to manage if they were mostly asleep when they left.

Akane and Sebastian would be spending the night in one of the Macklin's guest rooms. It would give them extra time to chat about this and that in the morning, and when they left with Jason there would be no whisperings by the neighbors about where he had spent the night or with whom.

EPILOGUE

With the wedding of Mario and Eugenia, all but two of the major players and their backups had now not only met but been inextricably bound to each other. One of the most important parts of the plan was now all but complete. Lady Blue turned to "Mimi" and "Ailin" who had resumed their natural forms and, for Ailin, his true gender, for this meeting.

She bowed. "I thank you for your continued help in this matter."

"Thanks are not needed. It is, after all, our duty. We are especially pleased that you arranged for our children to meet again here and to grow up together. We had serious reservations when you convinced us that allowing one of our eggs to be hatched and our youngling raised by one who was, or at least had been, a human would be necessary. As our births are always twins, we were extremely worried that problems would arise if they were reared separately.

"We are worried no longer. Now that they have been reunited, 'Stavros' and 'Consuela' are as fit, happy, and as stable as they would have been had they been reared together since they hatched.

"We will continue to support you. Not only is your plan necessary in order to rid this 'verse cluster of one of its greatest threats, but, we must admit, we are having a great deal of fun."

Lady Blue smiled. "That is as it should be. When you are working to prevent the corruption of an entire group of universes, if you don't make time to find something to enjoy now and then, you'll go crazy long before you've solved your problem."

They laughed. "It is as you say. Now we shall return. We wish to continue to watch over the children, both ours and those others for whom we have assumed responsibility. Fare you well."

After they had blinked out, Lady Blue hoped that all of them would "fare well" and not just for now, but for always. Whether or not that would come to pass was as of yet somewhat uncertain. Still, there was hope. There was always hope. That certainty had sustained her ever since she had conceived of this plan to rectify the mistake that had put so many universes in danger.

There were now only a paltry few thousand details left to take care of over the next six to eight centuries. A piece of cake!

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Silk Road - A term not coined until 1877, we use it here as it is easier than dredging up what the land routes from Europe to Asia were called in the 14th century.

Pope Sixtus IV - On Earth II, his reign began in 1471, approximately 90 years later than here in our tale from Earth VI. Unfortunately his corrupt practices and nepotism were the same in both worlds.

Printing

Most people think of Johannes Gutenberg as having introduced the printing press with movable type in about 1450 AD. This is not correct. He was, probably, the first to do so in Europe. At the very least, he's received more publicity than others who were working on it at the same time.

The oldest press known to have used movable metal type was developed in Korea around the year 1377 AD.

The Chinese has presses with movable type no later than 1040 AD - though theirs used porcelain type.

So... It isn't all that much of a stretch for me to have Zheng He bringing a small press with him to India and "give" it to an Italian ship-captain. (Probably after receiving a substantial "gift" himself from Captain Turano.)

You might wonder why, on the Friday before Avellino was captured, the children were not in school. Many schools closed on the Friday before each Festa so as to allow the children to assist their parents in making preparations. This could be something as simple as preparing for a family celebration, or as complicated as stocking and assisting with sales to pilgrims and tourists at their family businesses. Festa weekends, except for those in the dead of winter, brought in a large part of the annual income for many businesses in The City.

Regarding the information Miranda supplied to Akane when she burst in on Miranda and Blair:

The reason that Miranda was already familar with Jason's work with the diaries was because Paolo had mentioned it after dinner one day. She'd found the information interesting, but nothing more than that. At the time, her mind was primarily occupied by an ongoing incident regarding a 'disagreement' between the Tailor's Guild and the Dyer's Guild.