[Trevor and Sypha left two weeks ago, called away yet again by the demands of Wallachia and her people. Oh, yes, Carmilla is a problem, but she is coupled with the need to help the whole of the country recover from the hell unleashed upon them early in the year. It is a true blessing that Dracula's rage struck during the winter months, making a harvest still possible to plant, but there have been so many deaths. It's been so hard to plant and do the work, and all of that is ignoring the ongoing tensions within the region. The Ottoman empire hungers for land, and Wallachia is a staging ground for further movement into the region.
Alucard's spent much of his year repairing the castle and the Hold. The latter has a working staircase again, and the worst of the blood has been cleaned out from it. The former has had less attention paid, because to do so is to work through the harder parts of grief that Alucard does not know if he is prepared for yet. So he has done the easy parts: the main hall. The library. Anything like a common area, and side rooms that have precious little emotion attached to them.
It was in going into what he presumed to be simply a side room that he understood some of the finer details of his father's plan. In that room was a slab, a pile of dead things, and a little dog with blue eyes and exposed bone. Forgemastery.
And a truly strange forgemaster.
Everything was removed from the room save for the pets. They were...they were unto themselves, with no wrong done and there was a sense that they could at least make the castle less empty when Trevor and Sypha were away. And they did, although questions like do they eat? And if so, what? were a plague. Still are, in truth.
Alucard is in the castle's library when he notices Cesar perk from what has become His Spot on one of the sofas there. Alucard's own work at the moment is that of book repair, as there are a great many texts that need their pages reattached. The dhampir is all set to ask what on earth has gotten into the dog, but he hears it too.]
I see.
[Calmly, Alucard puts down the pages in his hand, and walks to the door. There's no surprise in him that Cesar is out like a shot, and all he does is follow. Little ridiculous legs are no match for his long strides or dhampir speed, although there's something decidedly charming about watching Cesar go careening down a spiral staircase and bump straight into a man's boots, tail going far too fast. He is a dog filled with so much joy he might combust from it.
Alucard, however, is far more somber about this reunion.]
no subject
Alucard's spent much of his year repairing the castle and the Hold. The latter has a working staircase again, and the worst of the blood has been cleaned out from it. The former has had less attention paid, because to do so is to work through the harder parts of grief that Alucard does not know if he is prepared for yet. So he has done the easy parts: the main hall. The library. Anything like a common area, and side rooms that have precious little emotion attached to them.
It was in going into what he presumed to be simply a side room that he understood some of the finer details of his father's plan. In that room was a slab, a pile of dead things, and a little dog with blue eyes and exposed bone. Forgemastery.
And a truly strange forgemaster.
Everything was removed from the room save for the pets. They were...they were unto themselves, with no wrong done and there was a sense that they could at least make the castle less empty when Trevor and Sypha were away. And they did, although questions like do they eat? And if so, what? were a plague. Still are, in truth.
Alucard is in the castle's library when he notices Cesar perk from what has become His Spot on one of the sofas there. Alucard's own work at the moment is that of book repair, as there are a great many texts that need their pages reattached. The dhampir is all set to ask what on earth has gotten into the dog, but he hears it too.]
I see.
[Calmly, Alucard puts down the pages in his hand, and walks to the door. There's no surprise in him that Cesar is out like a shot, and all he does is follow. Little ridiculous legs are no match for his long strides or dhampir speed, although there's something decidedly charming about watching Cesar go careening down a spiral staircase and bump straight into a man's boots, tail going far too fast. He is a dog filled with so much joy he might combust from it.
Alucard, however, is far more somber about this reunion.]
You're the foregmaster then.
[It's absolutely no question.]