The long-standing and ancient building, founded in granite and creaking wood, came alive with renewed vigour, vitality, and colour as the hallowed cloisters and soaring arches bore aloft songs of praise and celebration. The dreary, dirt-stained glass of the tall windows was forgotten in the revelry as the light that flooded the building. Dried tall grass, shorn from the earth and dyed a bright white, descended from the rafters like the virgin snows of winter. The bride, resplendent in the golden tresses of flowers that adorned her wings and crowned her head in glory, smiled and embraced her husband. Tied down as he was in silver-threaded silk bands, with small iron weights that hung from his forelegs and wings, he embraced her in kind, his wings stretching to encompass her. Their first kiss as husband and wife was hidden from the world, a precious secret.