Alysanne didn't supposed her father must be still mourning. He almost never spoke about her mother and never with much regard. And he never visited her grave, probably because seeing the stone would hurt too much. But Alysanne wanted to go, she needed to see it for herself, after living her whole life with only a few pieces of memories. She desperately missed her mother and hoped seeing her grave would help.
The churchyard was covered with snow and the grave looked cold and lonely, just like Alysanne herself. Suddenly the girl understood why her father had never come here.
She started crying, asking her mother why. Why had she left her like this?
Then the help she was seeking came, if from a different source. Alysanne didn't know how long had father Ambrose been standing there. She noticed him only when he pulled her into a hug and let her cry on his shoulder.
"I don't even have any flowers." The girl sobbed.
Father Ambrose just held her closer until she calmed down.
"I... am sorry, father." She said after she stopped crying, once again feeling that the word was more than a title. The priest had always been there for her when her own father had not.
"I... can I go pray? I think I need some time... to think... and pray..."
Father Ambrose retreated, giving the girl her privacy. Was she ashamed? Or just confused and sad? Either way, she remained praying at the stone for a very long time.
When Alysanne left the chapel, it was already dark.
Before heading home, she stopped at the giving bowl and threw a coin into it, asking for the Watcher's blessing.
She heard a dull cling... and then she though she saw something white, moving towards her through the darkness.
For a while she just stood her, trying to decipher what her eyes were seeing. It came closer and closer, floating like a mist. She took a step forwards, drawn by some kind of a strange force...
...and suddenly the white thing was just in front of her. Alysanne saw a face of woman, young and pleasant-looking, with long honey-coloured hair tied into a braid. There was something familiar about her, but at first Alysanne couldn't put her finger on it.
The woman's mouth was moving, but Alysanne couldn't hear a thing. Then the apparition put her hands over her ears, like playing peek-a-boo with a toddler... and Alysanne suddenly realised why she had a strong feeling she had seen the woman before.
"Mother...?"
And then she was gone, like she had never been there.
Alysanne gasped with the double shock, only slowly coming to register reality again. Everything was silent and cold, not even a leaf was moving.
But what was the real reality?
After she at least partly recovered from the shock, she ran back inside to find the priest.
"I saw her! My mother, she was all white and floating, she looked like fog or mist or a cloud and..."
"Slow down! You are saying that you saw a ghost?" Father Ambrose was puzzled. He had heard about ghosts, but until now he had mostly waved the stories away as mere superstitions. But Alysanne seemed genuinely desperate.
"Yes! I think she wanted to speak, but I didn't hear anything and... what should I do, Father?"
Ambrose thought for a moment, but then he said the first thing that came to him: "First of all, you should get some sleep. You look exhausted."
When Alysanne left, Ambrose decided to learn more about what she could have seen and what it could have meant. He had to admit he was more than curious himself.
Alysanne didn't know what her mother may have been trying to tell her, whether she was angry or pleased with her daughter's conduct. But there was still one thing she was sure about. There should be flowers at her grave.
Spring was coming and Alysanne searched for the most beautiful of early flowers to bind into a bouquet to bring back with her the next time she visited the church.
With the grave decorated and looking less lonely, she felt much better.
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