|The Campania|

Only three days after they had set sail and already Madeleine found herself wishing for dry land. Not because she hated the sea – far from it – but because it reminded her of the past in such a harsh way she sometimes found tears springing to her eyes.
When she had been alive her father had arranged a marriage for her in the New Country, America. Her fiancé had been a young man who owned a vast plot of land in North Carolina. She had never even seen his face before she had been burned at the stakes. Her eyes trailed the vastness of the sea, wondering what her life would have been like had she not died. Would her husband have loved her? Would she have had children? Who would she have been?

The angel turned around, very aware of how time was frozen for her. Never would age mar her features or would time ravage her mental faculties. When her eyes fell on Ciel her mouth turned softer, a piercing pain stabbing her heart. Time would have an influence on her nephew, if he survived all of this. He would grow from a darling boy in a stunning young man. Then he would no doubt be as handsome as his father – she had seen the portraits – and have children of his own.

Madeleine handed him a plate, resisting the urge to ruffle her hand through his dark hair. Where would she be, in the centuries to come? The Upper Realm had become a place she could no longer return to, because Tamrat had made painfully clear that something was not right there. Should she stay in the Middle Realm then, and watch over her bloodline for the eons to come? She didn't think she would mind it, but how lonely she would end up being.

Sebastian walked past her, a gloved hand brushing past the ribbon on her back. His eyes were on her whenever he thought she did not notice, and probably she failed to most of the time. He was, like her, a being that would remain unscathed by time. Only disaster could bring them down, and yet she could not bring herself to truly surrendering to him. Oh, she knew she loved him, but such a foolish and unwise love it was. Her heart caught in her throat when she thought about it. Her pride would not let him have the satisfaction of knowledge.

"It will take place tonight." Sebastian announced, handing her precious nephew a plate. Ciel accepted, his eyes scanning the room.

"Yes." He replied, keeping his features calm. "It seems the signal for the opening of the "Aurora's Society" is a waiter, walking around the hall carrying empty glasses. The attendees then take one and go to the meeting place." Ciel glanced towards his servant. "Don't let the signal out of your sight. Madeleine, you look queasy. Are you seasick?"

She shook her head, pressing a hand to her mouth. It wasn't seasickness she felt, but something else on this ship. It came in wafts, some moments stronger than others. "I don't know what it is. But if it has to do with the Society it is incredibly bad news." It felt like dead things, only worse. More disturbing.

When she stopped talking the three of them overheard some women talking about Snake's skin. Madeleine's heart went out to him, because after dying people tended to get a broader view of the world. Even if the living her would have been just as frightened, the woman she was now understood perfectly nobody ever choose who they were. Not really. And yet Ciel beat her to it, comforting Snake in the blunt way he had adapted.

"You're another person, so of course you look different. What do you need to be ashamed for?" he swapped out the plate Sebastian had given him for a plate with sweets. "Besides, I get to choose my own company, and nobody gets a say about it."

Madeleine added her own sweet smile to Ciel's comment, though she did believe she could live without the actual snakes surrounding Snake. The animals still made her skin crawl. Sebastian placed a hand on the man's shoulder as well. "He's right, you are now the footman of a distinguished family. Have some confidence."

The gesture had her blinking in surprise, because it was kind without any immediate benefit. Snake blushed, faintly, looking down at the ground. Suddenly Ciel ordered her the both of them to stay behind, going after a man carrying an empty glass with Sebastian.
This of course caused the sweet smile to dissipate without pardon. Snake looked at her, holding up the cake in his hands with a puzzled look on his face. At once she regretted the loss of her taste, since the confectionery looked without a doubt to be scrumptious.

"I suspect it will be alright if you finish eating it." She encouraged him. Noticing the absence of a napkin she frowned. "Though he is awfully lacking in table manners sometimes. Why don't you enjoy the cake, and I'll go look for a napkin for you?"

Snake nodded, slowly. "Thank you… Maddy." He said, hesitating as if somehow the use of the nickname might insult her. She was slightly taken aback, before recovering at the speed of light. She touched his shoulder lightly, with the tips of her fingers, wary of any snakes he was keeping with him.

"It's merely what friends do." She assured him, the moment of responsibility droning down on her. She had to shake it off, because she could not be responsible for everyone in the world. But then the faces and names of countless children would resurface and she would be forced to acknowledge her role in the entire story. She regretted all those children and their stories.

She did not regret the names of the people who had hurt those children.

She was standing at the banquet table when a voice next to her sounded. "Simply marvelous." She turned her head, faced with a man dressed completely in white. His mahogany eyes sparkled when he took her in with a face that suggested she was indeed what he had just announced.

"Excuse me?" she answered, looking around her. One of the advantages of being a maid was that people simply overlooked her. It was amazing what people would say when in the company of only servants.

He whipped out a handkerchief, flashing it in the air once. "Pardon me, miss, but if I just might have your hand for a moment?" Before she had finished nodding her consent he had already picked up her hand, examining her nails and skin. "Simply superb." He exclaimed once more, sounding as if he had just found the holy grail. "Miss, you are in exceeding good health, even for a young woman in her prime." He exclaimed. As he straightened his back Madeleine noticed something pinned on his white vest. A golden phoenix in a circle.

At once she smiled, trying to look like just a maid, someone he could easily confide in. "I'm sorry sir, but I didn't quite catch your name…?"

"Ah, my bad entirely." He said, placing the handkerchief back in his front pocket. As he did so his eyes kept roving over her face, not like how Sebastian would look at her but clinical. "My name is Ryan Stoker, I'm attending a very important conference on board."

"A conference you say?" she repeated, sounding slightly out of breath. For some reason things were being played straight into her hand. She shifted her glance out in the hall for a moment, checking on where Snake might be. Noticing Elizabeth had him drawn in a conversation with her she redirected her look back to the doctor. "Would it be terribly rude of me to ask what it's about?"

The man laughed, taking a glass of water. "Not at all. An inquisitive mind is a joy for everyone, and the reason I am able to give this lecture. And it is a sign of health, which for a doctor like myself is so very important. My life work as you could say." The way he kept looking at her made her nervous, but if he was the one to give the lecture then he would know what Ciel needed to find out.

Stoker saved her the trouble of making up a flimsy excuse. "If you do not mind me, miss…"

"Madeleine."

"Miss Madeleine, you are one of those rare epitomes of healthiness. If it would not be too much trouble, and if your employer can miss your company for a few hours during this trip, I would be delighted to examine you. Sometimes there is more to be learned from a healthy person than from a sick one."

Madeleine had to keep her smile from becoming too amused. The man would have a field day if he ever were to examine her, since there were a few things that were definitely different from her and other people. One of those being that she was immortal. Who knew what modern medicine would be able to find out should they ever get a blood sample from her? "That sounds delightful." She could always glamour the man into succumbing to her, make him believe he had examined her. "I have some time free now…?"

He shook his head, looking indecisive. "No, I can't right now. First I have to give the big speech, and the demonstration. How lovely the demonstration will be, you have no idea." His face brightened. "But of course, you shall accompany me. There is a balcony available but no one should be using it now. If you would wait for me there, it wouldn't be long and you will be able to see everything."

She agreed and found herself dragged through the halls of the Campania. She didn't need any powers to see just how enthusiastic this man was about his work. There might have been malicious thoughts in his mind, but not about his work. Not about his wish to make life better for others.

The doctor entered upon the stage a few mere seconds after she had made herself comfortable on the balcony. She found Ciel and Sebastian fairly quickly, the demon noticing her as soon as she noticed him. They exchanged glances, before Madeleine flickered her eyes to the stage and back. The source of her unease was located in this very room.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Ryan Stoker commenced with a bow towards his audience. "Thank you for coming to today's research presentation of the Aurora Society's 'complete salvation of mankind'."

The title was a tad too hopeful, perhaps. Medicine wasn't the only thing needed to make a person happy, after all.

"What is complete salvation, you say? It is… complete health!" the doctor's face brightened as he started to pace forwards and back, attempting to involve everyone in his story. "A healthy body, healthy teeth, a healthy spirit housed in a healthy body is truly splendid!"
He started to look serious now. "However, there is a serious complication that we cannot mend. What is it? Death! And the great power that will save us from this disaster is our Society's secret medicine!"

Madeleine flinched, the first thread of terror inkling down her spine as she realized just what was being kept hidden in the chest on stage. But he couldn't have, because that required a power that humans didn't have. The rest of the speech was lost on her as the body of a young girl was revealed. Whatever they had done, it had left marks. Stitching across the head and mouth, perhaps other places obscured by clothed. She gripped the wooden railing, digging her nails in the wood. Because what she had felt was indeed in the chest but it was also elsewhere on the ship and it was wrong, wrong, wrong!

Electricity surged through the cables attached to the body, and she and Sebastian stared another look. In an absurd moment where her mind tried to escape this impossibility she wondered if the ponytail on the back of his head was real or a fake. If it was real she would have to cut it. Her mind focused on that because that was a body, but she could not sense a soul that belonged to it.

The scream of the dead girl's mother snapped her back to reality. Revived Margaret had taken a bite of her loving parent, sending the crowd reeling back. Sebastian retaliated by throwing silver dinner knives at the corpse. For a moment she thought that they would be safe, that the shock had put out the life rekindled.

Then Margaret moved again. And all hell broke loose.

|The Upper Realm|

Hell. Everything was hell, only she couldn't escape it because her body had become her prison. Tamrat huddled on the bed, arms wrapped around her knees. She had been brought here to recover but so far there had been no sign of her getting better. If only her back stopped hurting so much, if only the idea her wings were itching would subside, if only…

She withdrew a sob, organizing her thoughts again. Because apart from the pain there was also confusion. Madeleine had said things that had made Tamrat think about events that should have been important to her. Only she couldn't remember. She knew she had become an angel because so many hundreds of years ago, men had come to her small village, burning and pillaging.

Three days before that event, Lord Raphael had appeared in front of her, drawn by the promise of someone who could become an angel, if only they made that greatest of sacrifices. They just never told that to the humans they contacted, because the sacrifice had to be pure.
On the night the men had come, Tamrat had been the one to run from the hiding spot where all the children and the expecting mothers had been. She had hollered and screeched, running through the dark, damp night as stars dotted the sky over her head. For a moment she would have believed that the men wouldn't be able to catch her, because she was the fastest in the village. Only Raphael had told her that they would catch her. They would catch her and rape and cut her until she had nothing left in her.

He had told her that. She had believed him. And she still had ran.

The memories should have brought tears to her eyes, make them drip on her twilight skin. Yet she felt nothing, as if the memories were a story a stranger had told her in times past. Her breathing quickened as she realized she did not remember the name of her brothers and sisters. The more Tamrat delved into the deepest recesses of her mind the less she could delve up.

Should she not remember those for whom she had sacrificed her life? Shouldn't she be able to cry for her own hardship. She remembered – vaguely, like watching a scene through dampened glass – that she had woken from her dreams screaming as an apprentice. But once she had become a full angel… nothing. Only the thought of spreading the Light managed to fill her with joy now. Only duty managed to fill that pit in her stomach.

The sound of the door opening brought her back from her own mind. Eduardo's red mop of hair appeared in her field of vision, carrying along with him a chocolate candy bar. "Costel wanted to visit as well, but there was a situation. He sent a chocolate bar in his stead."

Tamrat accepted the chocolate, leaving it in the wrapper as Eduardo took a seat. "How are you feeling today?" he asked her, not expecting an answer any different from the time before.

"The same." She replied. He wasn't disappointed in his expectation. Tamrat observed her visitor, him not in the least intimidated by the fact that she was doing it. Once, in a past when Eduardo had been an apprentice as well, he had told her how he had died. For who he had died. He had been only fifteen at the time, a young boy living in Venice and how he was in love with a courtesan. Francesca, though the woman's last name eluded Tamrat, like so many more things did.

Francesca had been a kind woman, still young enough to be appealing to the son of a cobbler. She had dropped a handkerchief once, and Eduardo had caught it, returning it to her. When she had touched his hand, so he claimed, he had felt as if he had touched the heart of a star.
Three days before she would be attacked the archangels had warned him as he was praying in church for some way to make her happy. They had given him three days to make up his mind, and he had been convinced three centuries would not have made a difference.

Because when Francesca smiled, the entire world sparked in bloom.

His death had not been easy, broken ribs puncturing tender tissue, drowning him in his own blood. Yet he had not been sad about dying, but he had cried tears of happiness when he had told his tale. Because in the end Francesca, the courtesan that could set the world in bloom, had been by his side. Dark ringlets had fallen over him and he had gotten the chance to smell her perfume. It had been jasmine. She had cried for him, and he had managed to say her name with his last breath. Even as an apprentice he woke from sleep with her name on his lips.

"Do you…" Tamrat was afraid to pose the question. "Do you think of Francesca often?"

Eduardo broke away from his pensive pose, looking at her bewildered. "Francesca?" he asked, clearly taken aback. "I don't believe I know anyone by that name."

Moon's note : alright, all hell breaking loose on the ship And some clues about what they do with the apprentice angels. Who is getting extremely curious?

Just a quick reminder to everyone that uni has started once again, severely draining my writing time. Also, and this is important to me so here come the caps :

I'M WRITING A NOVEL!

As in, it's already written and now I'm editing, which is basically hell. Still progress is going good and I'm already at chapter three (somewhat) and after that I only have to do one more round of editing and then I can go looking for a publisher. Squee, so happy!

CeruleanKiss : once again terribly sorry I never quite answered when the next chapter would be coming. I'm a scatterbrain, a procrastinator and several other things which make communication with me tedious at times. Still, your reviews are quite often the highlight of my day, so once again I must say thanks to you.

AmandaLucia : My dear, you flatter me. I may be horrible at updating, but I promise I will always try to make it worth your while. Have a lovely day.

To all of the others who commented on Sebastian being a perv I have one thing to say : a perverted mind is a joy for everyone. I believe it's why I have so many friends. To all of you I wish a wonderful evening.