Cornelius knew that Velvet was a strong woman, but sometimes even centuries of living couldn't shake away her past. And Cornelius knew the same could be said for him.
Some days, he still thought back to his father and wondered whether his death had been a peaceful one or utterly horrifying. He figured that it must have been the latter, for after Ragnanival had fallen, Titania's populace was brutally murdered by forces from the Netherworld with many being devoured by the gaping maw of his grandfather. At least, that's what he had heard Oswald whisper to Gwendolyn those first few years after The End. They could not show themselves to the two—they had to believe they were the only ones left and survive in the new world alone.
But Cornelius's past was a trifle compared to Velvet. Even before the curse that had changed them into beasts, she had tentatively revealed to him the little details of her childhood—how she and her twin had witnessed their mother being strangled before their eyes and the whippings she had suffered for disobedience, even if it wasn't her fault. After she had grown and become wiser about the world around her, she learned the hard truth from her brother about what had happened to Valentine and had silently let tears fall when she left Ingway to die alone among the flames. Of the old world and the little happiness it had given her, she only had herself and him to cling on to while the darkness of the past remained a ghost that continued to haunt her.
The first year after they had become human again was supposed to be a simple matter of letting go and readjusting to life among the revived humanity. The task, however, proved to be taxing. During those fleeting nights, Velvet often huddled close to him in their newfound bed when they were drifting off to sleep and he would sometimes wake to find her clutching his nightshirt and whimpering softly. Eventually, she would calm down again and become peaceful, but Cornelius felt worried sick for her anyway. How could he not?
Something about being human must have stirred something awful inside her, he figured, for she had never suffered a nightmare as a Pooka and had collected the Valentinian coins without even batting an eyelash. He wanted to help her somehow, but he didn't know what to do or how to go about doing it. So many evenings were spent endlessly scribbling ideas on paper, only to have them thrown into a wastebasket in irritation.
But then, one summer night a year and a half after they regained their humanity, a thought occurred to him. If Velvet still had ghosts haunting her, well…
"We need to make a proper grave for your family," he declared the next day while they were eating lunch at a small café in the town they now dwelled in. Velvet looked up from her yogurt and blinked once, then twice.
"A…a grave…?" She asked softly.
Cornelius nodded and waved his finger. "We never properly buried Ingway's body since we discovered that it had gotten wrapped in the roots of that great ash tree near where he died. Your mother's tomb was also destroyed long before Armageddon and Gwendolyn and Oswald, well…their children, while bright, had never been taught traditional burial customs and could only hide them in deep holes so that their corpses wouldn't be eaten by scavenging animals."
He looked down at his ice cream and felt his cheeks flushing. This really felt like an idiotic suggestion and he was scared about whether Velvet thought he was being uncaring by telling her about this idea. "And if we could, I…I want to make something for my father too…" He rubbed the back of his head and laughed dryly. "Sorry if I'm…uh…"
He looked up when he felt Velvet's delicate touch against his hand and saw that she was smiling grandly.
"Please…" She said. "They need it as much as we do."
The former prince felt his heart melt into a puddle. It was the first time he had seen her smile like that since she had lost her rabbit's whiskers and fur.
And so, over the course of the next year, they saved up their money from the jobs that they had been given; Cornelius worked in a bookstore while Velvet helped in a grocery store as well as a local tailor. It was a slow process, but it was also exciting and Cornelius noticed that Velvet didn't shudder and quake at night as much as she used to. When the summer solstice next came, they went to a shop that sold headstones and bought five large slabs that they began carving into that very night.
Cornelius stuck to writing the names and coming up with suitable epitaphs. Per Erion's tradition, they were written in runes and only a modern historian knowledgeable in such writings would be able to read them. Velvet was the artistic one and spent time making intricate carvings into each of the stones. Gwendolyn was given birds and feathers dancing around a spear; Oswald had a fire burning in the middle of a dark grove, not to destroy, but to light the darkness. Cornelius helped with Edmund's grave, as he felt that he deserved inscriptions of a crown and a castle-like structure dedicated to his kinghood. Ariel, meanwhile, was given another eye to watch the world of the living and was surrounded by the swirls of a distant nebula giving birth to new stars. Each stone was, indeed, a work of art.
Velvet took particular care when it came to Ingway's stone. Cornelius watched day by day as she etched the familiar diamond-and-cross ornaments that had been attached to his chain while, strangely, adding images of blossoms
"Before he left his sickbed…" Velvet hesitated in her speech. She was almost done and, the next day, they would bring the headstones to the spot that they had picked. "He told me he had spent time in the company of Ringford's new queen because he had gotten into some trouble that only she could help with. He kept saying that he didn't know what she meant to him, but…"she smiled. "His voice had been very soft and I think he might have blushed once or twice, especially when he mentioned that she had acted cute from time to time."
Cornelius barely withheld a snort. Strangely, that sounded like something he would say.
When evening had set in the next day within Yggdrasil's forest, five headstones now sat at the roots of the great ash tree. They weren't in a straight line—rather, each had been given its own placing a certain distance from one another, not completely random but not completely orderly either.
Velvet stood in front of her mother's grave, hands behind her back, unmoving, and with a solemn expression. The grave had an offering of flowers set before it as well as a few grapes and mulberries that would, inevitably, be eaten by forest creatures. She was silent and Cornelius knew why. She was still trying to find a way to say her final goodbye to her.
The wind made the trees whisper. She breathed uneasily. "Mother, I won't forget you, ever. Even after you passed on, you still guided me towards my true fate in the world's end. I'm grateful for that and I hope you've found peace."
Her fingers twitched. She walked over to the grave closest to the tree, by the crossbow in the roots with the crimson gem that glimmered in the setting sun. She slowly knelt down and stared at the writing beneath the name, lips quivering just slightly.
Destiny was known and ultimately lived out; but there was comfort in the realization that I was free. One day, I'll reach the place where love is reborn and finally know what it means to live.
"You did a lot of horrible things during your life…" Velvet said while she moved her hands out from behind her back. The object in her hands was being gripped tightly, as though she couldn't bear to let it go. "But you tried so desperately to atone for your sins. I just wish that the compensation hadn't been your life. There was so much…"
Cornelius was by her side in moments when her shoulders let out a violent shudder. She shook her head and clutched the little object to her chest, tears being held back as best she could. "You…I know we'll meet again. When we do, I…" She slowly pressed the object into the grass. "I want us to be reborn. When we are, I'd like to be twins again. Okay?"
Cornelius looked at the object she had set down. He had noticed that she hadn't been wearing her veil recently and he couldn't understand why. Now, he knew.
The wind blew again and Cornelius wondered if someone was calling to them. Finally, Velvet stood up and he stood with her. She stepped towards him and took his hand, fingers coiling tightly while she leaned against him.
"And Cornelius will take care of me until then. So don't complain," she managed a laugh and wiped at her watery eyes. "Rest until morning comes again. Until then, this is farewell, Ingway."
And with that, the two walked away, back to the life where every sunrise meant something new, something hopeful. Just as the grove was falling out of view, Cornelius looked over his shoulder back at the grave.
The twin stars were twinkling in the hands of a golden specter. Ingway looked at Cornelius and gave him a smirk before he vanished again into the evening's fading rays.