What can I say about Rika’s Alliance? I’ve done quite a few wedding stories now, and there are more to come. Ultimately, I still need to get Chrístõ and Julia married in Theta Sigma. This is a fairly straightforward story, mostly told from Rika’s point of view, which is the one unusual thing about it. Most of the stories are from Marion’s perspective. A few are from Kristoph’s side of it all. A very few stories come from other angles. The story Rika’s Parents was. So is this.

We start with Rika waking up at the Lodge and then going to the Dower House to get ready for her wedding. We see her astonishment when she is dressed in silk covered in diamonds. Then she travels again to Mount Lœng House and a wedding bower under an enviro-dome in the garden and a traditional twelve hour ceremony to unite her with Remonte.

Oldblood weddings, of course, are meant to be in the Panopticon in front of the Lord High President. This one is held at home because Remonte is only recently a widower, not because Rika is a Caretaker. Yes, it is. Don’t go thinking otherwise. Besides, the President turns up to the wedding in the end!

I drew out part of the story with descriptions of the rain and then the sunlight on the enviro dome, and then the setting sun. Having set the wedding in the open air – nearly – it was only reasonable that the weather should be mentioned as a feature.

Then, of course, when the wedding was over, there was a bedroom scene. This was very much a Mills and Boon bedroom scene, ending just as Remonte begins to undress his bride and admire the satin lingerie beneath her finery. Again, one or two people found it a bit too passionate. But some people really need to get a grip on themselves.