The Crown's Obsession (WN)

Music Recommendation: Stories from the sky - Sid Acharya

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The young-looking vampiress hadn't gone anywhere, and she continued to sit on the grave where she had been sitting for the last few hours. Her bright red eyes looked at Theodore and Lucy, who walked and reached the end of the cemetery gates. She saw Theodore turn around, looking at her, but she knew he wasn't able to see her. On the second time, even Lucy was not able to see her.

It didn't feel like much time had passed since she had died or seen them, as she had always tried to be here, watching people enter and leave the cemetery.

Madame Sylvie Fraunces stared at the couple until she couldn't see them anymore. After ending up in the in-between world, it had taken her a while before she was able to visit the living world. Right now, it wasn't that her body was stuck to the graves, but it was only that she didn't want to follow them.

"I was wondering what happened in here," said someone from behind her.

Madam Fraunces turned her head and caught sight of a person in white light who had smoke evaporating up in the atmosphere. She couldn't see the person's face, but by the aura, she could tell it was an angel.

"I didn't expect to find a wanderer in here," said the angel before his features started to turn more precise, and she was able to see the gold eyes of the person.

"I didn't expect to find an angel in the cemetery," replied Madame Fraunces, not knowing what an angel was doing here.

"Devon has been a favourite kingdom when it comes to angels visiting it," smiled the person, and he looked around the place to see if there was anyone else in here. "It seems like you came in contact with a living being. How strange," murmured the person.

As far as Madame Fraunces knew, mortals couldn't see the dead.

Like many other days, she had been sitting here and watching people come and go on rare occasions. With years that had passed, the vampiress found out that there were many people here whose name didn't match the skeleton that rested in the graves.

With the angel here, she could only guess that he was here to check the vicinity and make sure to keep a balance in the living world.

"Is there a reason why she was able to see me?" questioned Madame Fraunces. It had taken her by surprise that Lucy had caught sight of her.

"I guess the veil between the living and the dead had fallen down," replied the angel named Gabrielle.

Gabriel had been around, speaking to one of the church priests where he had planned to locate himself instead of staying in the town that was near the borders. Since the last few weeks, things here had turned far more interesting.

"One of your angels helped her. Paschar," stated Madame Fraunces as she was there the night the Hawthrone castle had fallen under attack. She was there the entire time, but she could not do anything but only watch on the sidelines.

Hearing this, Gabrielle smiled, "My brothers seem to have been affected by the mortal world." With one of them, who had turned his back on Heaven and had turned to the dark side, the other two brothers had been put under trial. "I guess this is something that will need to be discussed once I go back. Though I do wonder what you are doing here, instead of being in Heaven? Your soul doesn't look tainted," he noted while watching the woman.

Madame Fraunces chuckled, "I wonder how you people segregate the souls to be good and bad. If someone were to ask me, I would have been sure to choose Hell."

Gabrielle didn't respond to this, but he continued to stare at the woman who looked younger than when she had died. It wasn't often a person's soul turned back its time.

"Why do you think it to be so?" he asked, his voice calm and peaceful like the surrounding of the cemetery where no one was there to disturb.

The woman wasn't shy to bring her hand up that held the cigar in between her fingers, using it to drag the smoke before she blew it away. "I don't follow the worldly rules which other people follow. Not to forget, if I am not wrong, most of the vampires are damned and are warranted to end up in Hell."

At the woman's words, the angel smiled. "This is where the difference lies, we believe if there is still hope in a person to change, then that soul is worth saving. They are worth living in the Heavenly realm," he said to her. "I know what you have done until now, Sylvie. We try to be fair in our judgment, because God is merciful. I doubt what you have done is something evil or to harm others."

"Will the veil come down again?" asked the vampiress.

Gabrielle had seen many wanderers who refused to enter Heaven and took the path of loneliness. Some hoped to go back to the living world and continue their lives that had been paused without their will.

"I doubt so," replied the angel, who had fixed the veil back to its place. "It must have been a temporary error that dropped the veil between the mortals and the existence of the dead. You should enter Heaven before it is too late."

The woman smiled, "I find it hard to do. Rumours have it that you wipe out the memories, and what are we without any memories? An empty shell."

"You must know that it is done to prevent a person from experiencing any more pain and heartache. Cleaning the memories, helps in putting the person at ease," stated Gabrielle. "It isn't as bad as it sounds."

Madame Fraunces didn't respond to his words. She didn't have any plans to leave the world that she was once part of.

"Think about it, whilst you have a few more days. You won't see many wanderers around and that has a reason," said Gabrielle. "A wanderer has only a certain period of time before he or she needs to decide if they are willing to enter Heaven. If not, their soul gets dragged by the Salvette Mortems to the underworld," saying this, Gabrielle disappeared from there, leaving Madame Fraunces alone in the cemetery, again.

Back in the carriage in which Theodore and Lucy rode, Lucy couldn't help but wonder where the woman had disappeared to. She had told her to wait.

She felt Theodore's hand slip into hers, and she turned to look at him, "Don't worry about her. She will be fine. As far as I remember, the woman has always been able to look after herself without anyone's help."

Lucy nodded her head, "I hope she's okay."

She let her head rest on Theodore's shoulder while putting her arm around him.

Theodore, who sat next to Lucy, wondered why Madame Fraunces was still around without entering Heaven. It seemed like she refused the idea to leave the living world.