An Afternoon with The Duchess

A highly conservative  ghost lived in a house on the outskirts of Libra, that had only two floors and a little garden. 

Emerald decided to go there and to free the ghost.

 The ghost already has killed some people already, these ones wanted to confront the ghost about her ideals, and never actually did what she asked them to do.

 Emerald was called to find out what was happening and to stop all this killings.

Today she choose to dress something appealing to the ghost, something that would not annoy the thing.

 And thus she covered most of her skin, she dressed like a high blood noble, the citizens of Libra looked at her weirdly when she walked down the streets.

When she arrived at the house she directly smelled the perfume of old.

What i mean by that is, that Emerald was a Noble before coming in the underground. 

She's the kind of rich girl that wants to help people in the dirt trope. 

But she's amazing, she's one of the reasons why Libra is such an understanding place, not just extremist in its point of view against rich or surface people in general.

 Libra would be very open minded compared to some factions that vow the destruction of the surface, her presence and her accomplishments did a lot to build the great Libra of today. 

And when she heard about this ghost, she knew, that it was also about her, she needed to stop the horrible taint against rich people. 

And underline that they are people too.

She entered the house, and directly she heard a whip up stairs.

"Not my type if you ask me" she says with confidence

A white lady dressed with humble clothes start descending the stairs.

 She definitely looked like those rich women, she had the whip in hand. Emerald directly puts the translator gadget in her hand to translate whatever she is about to say.

"I always considered it bizarre to see a brown .... Girl dressing like us" she spoke this in French

"Racism as well?"

"Just the truth"

 she says descending the stairs and standing right in front of Emerald, she graciously put her hand in front of her, she is asking for her to kiss it.

Emerald now exactly knows why the others died. They didn't play the game. And thus she kissed her hand, and she kneels quickly.

"Oh no need to drop to the floor Dear I'm not royalty"

 the lady chuckles

And by this action she put her first card on a chess board.

"How may I help you my lady?"

“it’s the afternoon , I want my daily tea”

"So should i do a tea?"
"Yes i shall wait for you upstairs , make it by the book and do not drop any on the floor. The kitchen is at your left"

"Yes my lady"

Emerald entered the kitchen to find that the kitchen looked like a peasant's kitchen but it was clean , she takes a cup and pours water , she starts to heat it , in the traditional way.

she waits , she sees the water rising , she turns it off. 

she was trying to find bodies or Sails. 

before putting any tea and sugar, she looks around one more time , she tries looking in the other dusty wooden and stone rooms ,, no one was there , there was however a big salon with a piano. 

Yes Sails , he went to this house but did not come back yesterday  , Emerald was dispatched to find him and bring him back , if he is still alive. 

Emerald then pours the tea and starts to get up the stairs , however a dog was tying to ask for petting while she was still holding the cup , she was about to fall but she managed to get her stability back. 

she gets up and finds the woman sitting on the balcony awaiting her tea. 

she poses her drink, the lady thanks her.

"Anything else my lady?"

"Why did you look in the other rooms? I don't like nosey people" she says while looking at the trees 

"Pardon me my lady , i was-"

"Searching for the ones who disappeared , like many , don't worry , we will see them soon."

"How?"

"I don't like being asked many questions"

"Yes , forgive me"

"Remind me of your name"

"Emerald my lady"

"Very Nice name , my name is ..."

she closes her eyes and sighs , she poses her fingers on her head , near her eyes , for a moment .

"Emerald did your husband come back from the war?"

"I am not married"

"Why what's wrong?"

"Nothing is , just didn't find anyone"

"My husband never came back from the war , i don't even know how he died"

"In what war?"

"The great war of course, the one that ended all wars"

"I am sorry to hear that my lady"

"Oh it's alright I've been living here for quite a while. Forgive me for earlier"

"It's alright , if you'll accept it my lady , i brought you a gift with me today "

"A gift ? for me?"

"I know today is your marriage anniversary , before coming here , i made my research , this house was under the name of Henry Blueblood , and you are Miss Mari Blueblood , your husband was a rich noble general in the world war , that defended French soil"

Here is the second card on the chess board circling the Queen. She gives her a necklace full of small emeralds and diamonds.

"I don't know what to say"

"Nothing needs to be said my lady , you know i am always of service"

"Yes , thank you Emerald , i shall wear it when we do the-" she looks at her broken watch "Oh my- we are late! we need to go downstairs and go play some piano , but first i need to dress appropriately" 

she then orders Emerald to go look inside her closet , Emerald finds very poor , old , dusty clothes. She cannot give her that. But Emerald was a fashion addict back in the day (still is) , she saw the red beautiful curtains , and the black drapes of the bed , alongside a torn black leather pants on the floor. she picks them up and asks The Duchess where can she find the right tools , she tells her to find it in the box of biscuits.

 and She does , for an hour the duchess kept repeating that they are late ,, and each time Emerald told her to give her 5 minutes. 

When it was ready , she helped her dress a very noble black and red dress that made her look young , she also gave her good makeup , Emerald had some on her. 

As for the hair , Emerald cut here and there , used all the skills she could muster for the hair to be acceptable , she found hats , she colored them and used them. 

and then , Emerald took off her shoes and gloves and gave the Duchess something to wear .  Since she wasn't wearing any. 

Thankfully , Emerald had still the socks. 

finally , they went down. 

" Shall we?"

"Yes, here come follow me"

They go inside a room on the ground floor, there Emerald finds herself in a room full of spectators in the salon, waiting for the duchess to play. 

Some of them started chuckling, they were all very white, the Duchess looked at them.

"May I know what is so funny?"

But no answer was given, only silence. 

The duchess took a seat near the piano, then called for Emerald to sit next to her, she does.

"My lady?"

"I never played alone , my husband always played with me , we'd share the piano , may you help me?"

"I don't know any Beethoven!" 

"oh"

 "I don't know Beethoven but I know passion and love can work things out and make something beautiful"

"Perhaps but these people like Beethoven"

"You're the Duchess, not them."

 As she looks at them , she sees Diamondheart and Sails with core steel handcuffs linked to one another

"I dare say that it is true, how shall we do it?"

"Hmm, I’ve played piano in my life , but not much”

“but what should we play then?”

“You know , I’ve always wanted to try a certain one my lady , this could be fun, but challenging”

“What is it?”

Emerald gets close to her ear and whispers

 “Rush E”

“I DO NOT HAVE A SUPERIORITY COMPLEX IN ORDER TO PLAY IT?” the duchess laughs as she says it

“its not a superiority complex if we are superior , besides ,we’ll play it together , and , I have these”

She shows two core tubes

“Oh why not have some fun”

“The notes are here, on my phone , basically , um a paper that you can touch and scroll magically with / let’s drink first , then read them, and finally we’ll play”

“this magic paper seems amazing”

She scrolls the notes with her fingers , she takes off her gloves and drinks some core.

 They sit a good 5 minutes to memorize them , their eyes glow golden.

 they divided the piano in two ways , each part will be played by one of them. 

The duchess takes a deep breath , and starts

(Music – I advise you to listen to it while reading the rest : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qskm9MTz2V4)

The crowd gets weirded out at first  , but help with clapping , while following the music , when it gets faster the duchess and Emerald get up with a large smile on their face , sometimes even busting out of laughter , they are having the time of their lives , many of the crowd start to dance together . 

Diamondheart and Sails just look at what’s happening with awe.

“I think we are the ones who should have been humble” says Sails with a smirk

Diamondheart rolls her eyes , and smiles “Wanna dance?”

“I am not dancing with my enemy”

“You don’t want to dance with your enemy or you’re scared because you don’t know how to dance?”

“Ha ha , I know how to dance”

“Sure”

(after the first big E meme hits , Diamondheart looks at Sails, she tilts her head , he clearly loves the music , they finally dance salsa  together)

Everyone claps and cheers at the end of the masterpiece.

The Duchess cries tears of joy and hugs Emerald , some ghosts start to disappear , the ones who were considered dead , and the ones who were alive but chained are now  freed . 

“Thank you for making me remember” she said , as she started to fade away.

“wait wait don’t go My lady!” Emerald yelled , but the duchess was no more.

 Emerald was wounded emotionally for a week , very sad about what she experienced , but she did give an analysis about the whole situation :

After research , it was clear the so called duchess was actually just a middle class person in the 1900 , but her husband was also that , however he made her feel as if she was a duchess , taking care of her like nobility , and then one day , he was called to war. 

He wasn’t even a general , just a soldier , who died by gaz.

 And the poor women threw herself in the river of the Seine when this happened , her body somehow was sucked into an underwater hole who brought her in the Underground. 

Indeed , Sails , does remember that one of the big entrances of our world lies under Paris near the river.

 In this world , the core took ahold of her and made her chained to a past she didn’t even remember. As for Diamondheart , she of course vanished after these events , Sails didn’t want to say why they were both there, but he’ll crack , eventually.

report by Ruby

picture credits :

https://pixabay.com/photos/house-cemetery-haunted-house-dark-2187170/

https://pixabay.com/photos/hills-trees-fog-morning-fog-foggy-615429/

https://pixabay.com/photos/architecture-inside-room-habitation-3143386/

https://pixabay.com/photos/kitchen-old-history-open-air-museum-4665913/

https://pixabay.com/photos/old-house-damaged-weathered-aged-2489872/

https://pixabay.com/illustrations/fan-black-red-white-colorful-4457527/

https://pixabay.com/illustrations/butterflies-background-black-red-764933/

https://pixabay.com/vectors/piano-musical-instrument-music-33909/

https://pixabay.com/photos/piano-rose-keyboard-passion-petal-2377603/

https://pixabay.com/illustrations/woman-stairs-backlighting-the-shade-3340958/