Sloane was walking ahead of Nathan, as they returned to the mansion. It was clear by the heavy steps she was taking that she wasn't in the best of moods. As soon as she reached the mansion, she slammed her fist on the wall but there was no damage to the wall due to her pulling back her strength
"Damn him" she shouted through clenched teeth "How could he do such a thing when everyone else is hurting?" she rested her head against the wall
"So, what will you do to fix this mess?" Nathan asked with folded arms "A direct Vampire Knight of the queen, disrespected the queen in public and disregarded the people he was fighting for, with such a selfish act. Which in turn, caused the queen to enact a punishment in front of the masses whose spirits are already pretty low" he lowered his head "This is pretty serious"
Sloane's fist unclenched and her bare palm was on the wall as she poured her magic into the mansion. The mansion instantly began to reconstruct until it looked like a miniature castle.
However, the next instant, the ground began to shake and several houses were being built at an alarming rate. These houses were away from the castle and like before, only the nobles had large mansions while the other places consisted of small duplexes and apartments. While doing this, several white lights began to leave Sloane's body and go towards those who had lost their loved ones.
Photos, personal items each persons' loved ones could have gifted them, and even stuff from the past, of which they didn't want to let go of. All of those stuff reached its rightful owner not leaving anything or anyone out as it entered even inside the hospital. This had caused a lot of commotion around the newly rebuilt settlement.
******
The Hospital
Brianna, who sat with lifeless eyes as Allen held her tightly, could hear all the commotion from outside. Soon, the white lights reached her and Allen
"This feeling, is it a spirit?" Brianna asked as she reached out and touched one of the lights. The light turned into Brianna's mother's hairpin. Brianna could still smell the faint scent of her mother on it as she brought it towards her chest and cried. "Thank you"
One of the white lights moved towards Allen and as he touched it, it became a family portrait of him, his mother, Brianna, Brianna's mother and their father. But at the bottom of the portrait were two letters. One had Brianna's name on it while the other had Allen's. When Allen looked up, the white lights were gone.
******
Zuri's room
Priya had just received a photo of her and her mother. That day, the day when she took the photo, her father had refused to come with them. She was so young but now she guessed, her parents were probably about to get a divorce before her mother passed and her father didn't even wait three weeks before marrying again. She placed it away in her pocket while Christian was completely focused on Zuri.
Meanwhile, the less and fairly injured were being treated by Fernanda, Giselle, Mackenzie, Clark and Mary. They were running around the place and treating people everywhere; even while the white lights were moving from person to person.
A photo and a letter appeared beside Giselle and although spooked, she could guess what it meant if she received one. Not everyone in the hospital had received something from the white light which could only mean, they hadn't lost someone. For one to appear beside her, really broke her down to her marrow as she began to sob into her palms. When Kayden finally found her in the crowd of people, her eyes were red and she didn't hesitate to throw herself into his arms.
Mackenzie watched them from afar while holding a photo album close to her chest. She didn't want to openly cry with everyone in the hospital until she was with her new family. But when Rosco pulled her into a hug, she couldn't help it anymore and cried all the tears she couldn't cry when her blood family were eliminated.
In truth, this second civil war had made many realise how weak they were. Nobody wanted to lose more than they had already lost during the first civil war.
******
When the lights stopped leaving Sloane's body, she almost collapsed but Nathan caught her on time
"One high level spell after the other...." Nathan grumbled "You do remember that it hasn't been long since the ritual too place, right? Don't overdo it"
"Why are you worried about me?" Sloane asked as she steadied herself on her feet
"Sloane, you're very important to me. To all of us" Nathan said but when Dante's words crossed his mind, he turned rigid "Everyone is currently in disarray. You'll be crowned Queen after reclaiming the North but right now, you're to keep order"
"Is that all I mean to you?" Sloane asked
"What do you mean?" Nathan asked and Sloane looked at Nathan's hands which were holding her up, before slapping them away
"If that's all, then don't ever touch me again, Nathan" Sloane said with cold eyes "That's an order"
"Slo-"
"This is where I draw the line, Nathan. The invisible line you should never cross with your queen. I do hope you respect it and understand" Sloane said before walking away from him with all her tears being held back, by her cold facade as she headed inside. While, Nathan stood there with frustration written on his face as he combed his hand through his hair
'I'm such an idiot' he thought as he rested his head on the wall before he clenched his fists 'But I know...this is the best choice. I never should have gotten attached in the first place....just like Sloane' he pushed off the wall and headed inside
******
Sloane laid on her bed and tightly hugged her pillow as she let the tears flow
'It hurts so much. It hurts to the point my heart feels like it wants to burst' she thought 'That feeling my mum felt when she was around dad, I only just realised it was the same as when I'm with Nathan. However, it's clear that this whole time, he felt nothing' she clenched the sheets "After all the things we've done. It was nothing but lust"
"Princess" she heard Xavier call from behind the door as he knocked
"What is it?" Sloane asked as she composed herself and cleaned her tears before walking up to the door
"Everyone is ready to burn the bodies" Xavier said "They've all gathered the bodies in one place and Marcus decided it would be best that the higher ranked officials be burned first by you and the other elders, along with the descendants"
Sloane sighed before opening the door "Let's head down" she said and Xavier stepped out of the way as she came out before shutting the door behind her.
They came down the stairs and met up with Kathy who was just about leaving. A maid opened the door for them and after they left, the maid followed behind them and they met up with a large crowd of people around the northwestern outskirts of the rebuilt settlement.
The snow had already pilled up and the place was already pretty cold. The bodies had been gathered into a mountain with other bodies around it in a circle. Gard, Marcus, and the descendants of the three kings each stood in front of one of the bodies on the circle, with a flaming torch in hand. Nathan however, was the only one who was holding two which surprised Sloane when she got there.
"Here you go" Nathan said as he handed the second torch to her and she held it while locking eyes with him for a short while, before heading back to the burial ritual.
"Thanks" she said before looking at the face of who she and Nathan would be burning. Seeing the person's face, brought back lots of memories for her. There were a lot of memories where, the older woman had been the source of headaches for the royal family. It was a shame that a person who could cast power spells without batting an eye, and also spoke with a haughty tone when in front of Marcus and Nathan, had to die on the battlefield. "Goodbye, Louisa. Thank you for everything" Sloane said as she and Nathan brought their torches over Louisa's body before setting it ablaze
Two at a time, people began move up to one side of the heap and toss their torches at the heap. When everyone had dropped their torches, the elders and descendants did the same as the fire which had been started at the bottom, began to connect itself until the whole heap was in flames and everyone moved away from the flaming bodies. However, they still stood to watch the bodies burn to the ground.
What was left, was a black scorch mark on the snowfield. Everyone began to disperse as they would await Sloane's orders the next morning. That was the case for the people, but it was a different story for those closely related with Sloane; as they were immediately summoned to handle the aftermath of things.