Part 3
When Victoria came to, she realized she was still wrapped in the same chains, but she was outside. Outside? Outside! She could see the glow of the sun on the horizon.
"Good morning, Miss Valorian." A little girl's voice from behind her said. "It'll be sunrise soon."
"Please, you have to set me free!" Victoria pleaded. "I'll die!"
"I know." The girl replied. "You were very mean to us. Prince Heather told us what happens to people who are that mean."
"Indeed I did." Heather said, walking into view of Victoria. "If you had been a rusalki, I would have been honour-bound to execute you immediately when you told us last year. Human law is far laxer than rus law, Victoria."
Victoria despaired. In the end, everyone abandoned her. In the end, nobody could love her for who she was.
"Victoria." A deep voice from behind her said. Hamlin?
"Hamlin, is that you? Come to mock the condemned as well?" Victoria said, tears running down her cheeks.
"No. I've come to say goodbye." He replied, walking into her view, and sitting down. "I'm afraid your story ends here, and certainly not in the way you had hoped. Abandoned by your family, by your friends, even by your husband. Dark urges you barely controlled when you were human, became your undoing as a vampire. The sad tale of Victoria Valorian."
Victoria didn't respond, except with more tears in her eyes.
"Does the condemned have any last requests?" Marvin asked, hand on his sword.
"Bury my ash in the garden." Victoria said, after a long silence.
"It will be done. Good bye, murderer. Maybe Jessie will finally stop haunting my dreams." Marvin said, a faraway look in his eyes.
"How long did you know, Marvin?" Rebecca asked.
"Since the day it happened." He replied. "It wasn't my place to discipline either of them back then, Duchess."
Victoria didn't say anything else. She watched the glow in the sky slowly get brighter, and reacted impassively as Rebecca shouted orders. She soon found herself nailed to a large wooden board, the chains replaced by Rebecca's irongrip vines. As the first rays of light hit her body, she felt herself heating up.
"My final sunrise." She whispered, and closed her eyes.
In the end, not even ash was left behind. She burned so brightly and hotly that it felt like another sun was there, but the wood she was secured against was unmarked, save for a shadow left on it.
"She was right you know, Boss." Jack said privately, after everyone else had left.
"About what, Jacob?"
"You made her like that."
"I know. That's why I gave her a quick death. I could have drawn it out for weeks. Months. Years. She may have been a monster, but I made the monster, so it was my responsibility to put it down." Rebecca said, slightly sad. "I really did like her, you know."
"All of us did. Even those kids liked her. She..."
"Wasn't a bad person, just a damaged person. I know. But we are, and she paid the price for that. Come on Jacob, let's... have breakfast." Rebecca said, beginning to walk back inside.
Eigengrau arrived a few minutes after Rebecca and Jack went inside. Victoria wasn't particularly special, and certainly didn't need to be collected personally, but she was still a vampire, so she wanted to visit her place of death.
"An execution." Eigengrau sighed. "Certainly not what you expected."
Eigengrau gently scraped Victoria's soul off the wooden board into her hand, and made her way over to the garden. After digging a small hole with her other hand, she placed Victoria's soul inside and reburied it.
"There was no ash left, so I hope this will suffice. Nobody else could have done it." Eigengrau whispered as she knelt at the dirt. After waiting a moment, she continued. "You're welcome."
Hamlin spotted Eigengrau in the garden, but chose not to say anything. He knew why she was here, and decided best not to disturb the last rites of Death's Children.
"Rest in peace, Victoria." Hamlin said quietly, as he watched Eigengrau disperse into the morning air. When he returned back inside from walking the grounds, he called over Rebecca and Heather.
"Yes Hamlin, what is it?" Rebecca asked.
"Lady Eigengrau buried something in the flower garden." Hamlin said quietly. "She came to perform last rites on her child."
"There was nothing left, Hamlin." Heather replied. "Just a shadow."
"It was her soul." Rebecca answered. "Eigengrau buried her soul."
"Should we tell the others?" Heather asked.
"No. Let Victoria rest. She doesn't deserve a headstone, but she deserves peace from her tragedy." Rebecca said, shaking her head. "Thank you, Hamlin."