Elysian PressElysian Press
Blog Shop About Search
Obscurity 1 Obscurity, The Prologue Free 2 Obscurity, The First Chapter Free 3 Obscurity, The Second Chapter Free 4 Obscurity, The Third Chapter Free 5 Obscurity, The Fourth Chapter Free 6 Obscurity, The Fifth Chapter Free 7 Obscurity, The Sixth Chapter Free 8 Obscurity, The Seventh Chapter Free 9 Obscurity, The Eighth Chapter Free 10 Obscurity, The Ninth Chapter Free 11 Obscurity, The Tenth Chapter Free 12 Obscurity, The Eleventh Chapter Free 13 Obscurity, The Twelfth Chapter For paid subscribers 14 Obscurity, The Thirteenth Chapter Free 15 Obscurity, The Fourteenth Chapter Free 16 Obscurity, The Fifteenth Chapter Free 17 Obscurity, The Sixteenth Chapter Free 18 Obscurity, The Seventeenth Chapter Free 19 Obscurity, The Eighteenth Chapter Free 20 Obscurity, The Nineteenth Chapter Free 21 Obscurity, The Twentieth Chapter Free 22 Obscurity, The Twenty-First Chapter Free 23 Obscurity, The Twenty-Second Chapter Free 24 Obscurity, The Twenty-Third Chapter Free 25 Obscurity, The Twenty-Fourth Chapter Free 26 Obscurity, The Twenty-Fifth Chapter Free 27 Obscurity, The Twenty-Sixth Chapter Free 28 Obscurity, The Twenty-Seventh Chapter Free 29 Obscurity, The Twenty-Eighth Chapter Free 30 Obscurity, The Twenty-Ninth Chapter Free 31 Obscurity, The Thirtieth Chapter Free 32 Obscurity, The Thirty-First Chapter Free 33 Obscurity, The Thirty-Second Chapter Free 34 Obscurity, The Thirty-Third Chapter Free 35 Obscurity, The Thirty-Fourth Chapter Free 36 Obscurity, The Thirty-Fifth Chapter Free 37 Obscurity, The Thirty-Sixth Chapter Free 38 Obscurity, The Thirty-Seventh Chapter Free 39 Obscurity, The Thirty-Eighth Chapter Free 40 Obscurity, The Thirty-Ninth Chapter Free 41 Obscurity, The Fortieth Chapter Free 42 Obscurity, The Epilogue Free

Obscurity, The Sixteenth Chapter

In which the couturier discovers something in the philanthropist’s quarters, and it reveals a defect in his character.

We last read The Fifteenth Chapter, in which we met the Comte, and discovered him in the rather unfortunate company of his wife.

Séverine knelt at her prie-dieu, her black veil covering her head, her fingers intertwined before her. She did not pray the lord's prayer, for it no longer suited her. She did not pray the rosary, for it no longer nourished her. Instead, she just sat there.

She should feel guilty for her dalliance, she thought, for taking a lover into her bed. Indeed, she was still a married woman in the eyes of the Church and would be considered a harlot for such crimes. And yet seemingly overnight had no use for such stipulations and now determined to remove all trace of them from her mind.

She was disinterested in being yoked to some sense of regulatory goodness. That path only subjected her to the depraved tortures of her husband and the insidious haunting of his unmurdered soul. Instead, she resolved to follow her own sense of goodness, and those were much easier set of steps to determine.

Though she did not know what her purpose was or if there was such a thing, that only instilled in her the need to protect those near to her. Though she did not know where her soul would rest when she died, that only instilled in her the need to fight for each moment. There were no hours to pray, no scriptures to read, no penance to do, she had only to live her one and precious life and see that it was lived to the full.

Subscribe for free to keep reading.

Already subscribe? Sign in.

The newsletter

Get every essay in your inbox

Weekly essays exploring a utopian future.

Join 23,254 subscribers