Fera went over early wedding planning with Grayson that evening. Decorations would be largely standard because this wasn't the first time clergy had gotten married, and they actually had decorations for it in storage. Those were already being brought out, cleaned up, and made ready for the ceremony in a week. That kind of thing was already pre-determined because it would cost way more than anyone cared to spend to get new decorations made on time. A new candlestick for each table would entail more than a week's worth of work unless some smith happened to have over a hundred identical candlesticks. And to Grayson's shock, it would be over a hundred tables for the reception because they were clergy of Perimis, being wed in the temple of Perimis, by the high priest of Perimis. It would apparently be an injustice not to invite everyone, including Grayson's teachers, their own high priests (at least the ones who Grayson had made pacts with the Gods of), and any of the Crusaders of Perimis, Marrati, and Oris who hung around for the ceremony.

  Fera was ecstatic about the largest ceremony in recent years simply for all the extra clergy from other churches who would be coming along. Grayson was glad he'd have a week to get over his simultaneous shock and terror of the impending ceremony through the healthy and liberal application of displacement activity.

  That can't be healthy.

  It's what I've got, okay?

  Fair enough.

  Fera accepted Grayson's steadily growing terror with good grace despite her enthusiasm. After a while she calmed down and looked him in the eye.

  "It doesn't have to be this big if you don't want it to be," she said quietly. Grayson shook his head.

  "My dear Fera. A month ago, I was getting ready to spend two weeks in a massive city called London before it got flooded. A week and a half ago, I was in that flood and ended up here because of it. I had no idea Gods could exist. I had no idea magic existed. I didn't know where I was, when I was, or why and how I was here. A week and two days ago, I'd never killed anyone and then I slaughtered one hundred people. A week and two days ago, I met a woman who I figured was good to have around in a crisis. A week and a day ago I learned what happens if you suddenly gain an affinity for magic. A week ago, I started learning how to fight in a way that I simply had never had to before. I learned how magic works, spoke to multiple Gods, and formed pacts with them." he sighed.

  "Fera, a week and three days ago my social context for relationships was measured in months or years before marriage, and that's from when you start courting. But now I'm here in a world that's so different that most of what I consider normal is just wrong. I proposed to you properly this morning, ten days after I met you. Where I'm from, it would normally be ten months or more. And after all that, the ceremony is going to be in a week." He took her hands, staring into her golden eyes. They had worry in them, and the beginning of tears.

  "I'm glad I met you, glad I proposed to you, and glad I'm marrying you. I want the ceremony to be in a week, and I want it to be as much fun as you can make it. This might be the last real party we have in a long time, so I'm counting on you. And I'm glad that everyone I've met and talked to and become friends with can be there, that we have the room and the resources for that. It's just all happening much faster than I could have ever thought possible, and after it's over we're heading out to try and stop slavers from escaping over the mountains the next day." She actually was crying a little now, tears rolling down Fera's face as Grayson spoke, but the worry there was gone. Now it was just love.

  "I love you, Fera. I'm looking forward to my life with you. I'm scared now, but I'll be fine. So you go ahead and plan the biggest wedding and reception the temple quarter has ever seen, okay?" They embraced, holding each other tightly as Fera whispered her love back into Grayson's ear.

  Things got less awkward after that. Grayson was still certainly afraid of the big day, but took confidence from his fiancée as she got back to telling him her plans. There would apparently be one hell of a cake. Their conversation lasted into the mid afternoon where their lack of sleep caught up with them. They went to bed early, Fera nuzzling herself deeper into Grayson's chest than normal. He kissed her forehead and she let out a happy little sigh as they drifted off to sleep.

  The following week was a blur for Grayson. Learning to ride, learning to fight while riding, learning to cast spells from the back of the pegasus while in flight, learning how to compensate for the reach of his sword against other mounted men using lances who kept telling him he was an idiot for stubbornly refusing to learn how to poke people with a stick while riding a mount. Using magic to extend the sword worked wonders, as did using it to give his pegasus armor. Queuecy in his head gleefully shooting magic from wherever he wanted also helped a lot.

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  He also took a trip to the temple of the God of medicine, Miren, where kind young lady taught him healing magic. It took one of the properties of sunlight, easily replicable through light mana, that let plants create nutrients and grow. On a microscopic scale, yes, there's more to it than that, but magic doesn't really care about the microscopic scale all that much. The light stimulates growth in the plant which results in rapid cell production. Grayson tested it by helping to grow a small bush. Then applying the same growth application to animals was surprisingly easy. The magic didn't really care that what he was doing was impossible, it just did it, which Grayson supposed was why he was able to literally suck the heat out of something at range by shoving water mana into it, or sucking fire mana out of it.

  The second lesson was more concerning when Lilamurr cut her palm with a knife to demonstrate the actual healing on people, before doing it again for him to heal her.

  "Of course I'm not going to cut you! And if you think for one second I'm going to let you out into the world after you asked for me to teach you healing magic without you actually having healed something, you have another thing coming! What if you didn't really get it? You could be stuck out there without a way to heal, and you'd be in danger," she explained patiently.

  "Thank you," Grayson said sincerely, conveniently leaving out the fact that he'd be fine anyway. If he really didn't understand, he wouldn't be able to heal others, which would be worse than not being able to heal himself.

  The lesson proceeded to more significant injuries, Lilimurr deliberately severing a tendon, invoking Miren to prevent pain. Healing this took Grayson a few tries as it wasn't a natural healing process. When he thought of it as a conceptual extension of healing through restoration, it worked successfully. When they finished, Grayson remarked that this kind of lesson was a bit extreme.

  "People always say that," sighed Lilimurr. She seemed to be used to this, though Grayson didn't know how. "But when someone tries to use the same kind of healing I already taught you to fix more serious wounds and it goes wrong, they might have to sever the arm to regrow it properly. I can invite Miren into myself to hide the pain. I can't invite Miren into other people. So instead we teach people how to fix the serious injuries, and the differences."

  "So you're willing to mutilate yourself for this?" Grayson asked. "You're far braver than I am."

  "I was terrified the first time I did it," Lilimurr laughed. "I asked Miren to help me do it the first few times, not just dulling the pain, but doing the cut as well."

  "Couldn't you have just not done it?" Grayson asked. "If you really didn't want to I mean. Lord Miren certainly seems kind enough not to force people to do this kind of thing."

  "I volunteered to help teach new healers. They asked if I would be willing to do it and I said I would. They offered for me not to do that part of the training and I refused. People need to know this and cutting someone else like this is worse than cutting myself." She replied hotly. Grayson nodded.

  With Lilimurr and Miren satisfied at Grayson's healing proficiency, he continued his lessons in riding a pegasus, including riding with a passenger and taking care of the pegasus after landing. He found a pegasus with a temperament that he liked at a nearby livery while walking with one of the Crusaders of Marrati. It was a little frisky, but didn't try to buck or throw him when he mounted. It was a large, muscular stallion with dull grey hair and mane. While this particular pegasus wouldn't win any prizes in a contest, it was content with Grayson and Grayson was content with it. They led the pegasus back to the temple and spent the last days of the week training with him. According to the liveryman, the pegasus answered to Mink, leaving Grayson to wonder if actual minks existed in this world.

  Come to think of it, he had no idea what animals were in this world aside from pegasi and dogs that he'd seen kept as pets. They weren't actually dogs, but that's how the word loosely translated because that's pretty much what they were.

  Grayson introduced Mink to Fera and the pair got along well. They took a few rides in the evenings to get used to one another. While they walked or flew, Fera gave Grayson updates on how wedding planning was going. On the sixth day, everything was ready. Fera had, as promised, gotten one hell of a cake baked and decorated. One of the larger temple ballrooms had been cleared and decorations had been put up. After that evening's ride, they walked through the ballroom with the high priest.

  Brettin took them through the schedule for the ceremony. It would follow the same plan as similar ceremonies that Grayson had attended before. An initial ceremony with an aisle, some speechifying by the high priest before the main altar, then the spiritual union, then going for the dinner and celebration in the main ballroom. Grayson decided to double check exactly what they meant by "spiritual union."

  "The pair of you will rise into the air, glowing in the golden light of our Lady," said Brettin, nonplussed. He thought for a moment. "Ah yes, your world is different. No gods and no magic. Weddings must be boring."

  "Not so much, but certainly not this exciting," muttered Grayson. Fera chuckled and held his hand.

  "We'll manage," she said.

  Grayson nodded, squeezing her hand a little. He was feeling better about the whole arrangement, but this was just one more thing to be nervous about. Fera had been comforting him over the week, but he was still nervous as hell. Being told he'd be floating didn't help as much as everyone else seemed to think. They talked long into the evening before Grayson and Fera retired to their beds. For the first time since he'd come to this world, he slept alone. He thought he'd be used to sleeping alone after doing so for over a hundred and fifty years before coming here, but no. He could barely sleep at all without Fera beside him.

  Tonight though, his and Fera's rooms were separate and locked. This would be their last night before they were married and the world's traditions forced them to be apart until the ceremony started. It was similar to the old Earth tradition, though the locked doors were an unwelcome touch. Grayson spent half the night pondering irrelevancies before finally giving up. He used his neural network to send himself to sleep until dawn, then passed out immediately.