Chapter 264: The Couple
No quarter must be given to the mutated; they are not like us, and their minds have been corrupted by whatever foul taint has come out of those rifts.
Do not put them down with impunity, but rather, with compassion. They are limited now, driven to beings closer to animals than people. We can only hope that not all of humanity has been infested with whatever plagues them.
Do not shelter. Do not aid. Execute with compassion, any of those blue-skins.
-President Rosewell, Executive Order 312 (301, 3rd Era)
Wedding bells rang. Like everyone else in the crowd, Boldwick stood up to pay his respects. He straightened his finest suit and stood with his best form at attention. Beside him was Robin; definitely not his date, but he’d taken her as his plus-one, simply because he had had little time to spend with his student aside from the brief reports and endless meetings.
There wasn’t much free time lately, and even now, attending this wedding was an obligation, but he tensed regardless.
If things were going to go sideways, this was it. The bride and groom had a fistfight days before, according to the reports. Knowing his student, Colin, the young man’s ego could easily implode and make a scene, even now.
The groom stepped out from the side passage, standing at the altar; this was not a church, but rather, the interior of a private cavern, decorated with more flowers than a biocavern, and filled with enough gold and silver to fill several nobles' manors, with a long crystalline chandelier bigger than a house hanging far above.
Colin moved stiffly, then stood in the center of the cavern, right beside the wedding party, where two others of Boldwick’s students stood already.