[Hector arrives at the gates of Castlevania a pale shadow of the man who left it scant months earlier. The Devil Forgemaster, like the castle itself, has fallen.
It hadn't been easy to escape Carmilla's clutches. She had guarded her pet forgemaster jealously. It had taken time and more cunning than Hector realized he possessed to create a means of escape, but he'd managed it- barely. He'd sent his creatures out in different directions, hoping to obscure his own path from pursuit, and made his way back to his former lord's fortress. Uniform ripped and dirtied, hair mussed, lip split, and body bruised, he limps toward the once splendid home of Dracula Vlad Ţepeş.
With Lord Dracula dead, the castle offers no protection for Hector, but there is still something he needs from within the gates. The innocent devils and night creatures will all be gone, sent out to fight in that final battle or else killed or escaped in the confusion after. His pets, however, may still linger. Hector can hope. It's all he has left.
The sight of the grounded castle sends a stab of pain through his heart. Lord Dracula... Hector had played a part in the betrayal and fall of his lord. After he'd burned his parents' cabin to the ground, Hector had thought he'd never have another home. He knows now, by the shape of the emptiness within him, that he did.
The entryways to the castle have always been temperamental, and Hector half-expects the little side door he had used to come and go for his walks to bar itself. Castlevania is a living thing, Hector, Lord Dracula had explained when first Hector arrived. The door opens. Perhaps it doesn't know -or without its lord, can't be bothered to care- about Hector's sins.
The necromancer makes his way carefully through the halls. He is quiet in reverence and also in concentration- the doors and stairways in the castle often changed during his short residence here, and he isn't sure if the way to his laboratory will be the same now as when he left it. There is also the possibility of traps or enemies. He had to leave his hammer behind in Carmilla's keep. She'd only allowed him the use of it while he was supervised in her forges. He made his means of escape back in his cell, with two pilfered coins used to strike a spark. Unarmed, it is better to proceed with caution and avoid any chance encounters.
He turns a corner, but the flight of stairs he needs isn't there. Did it move, or did he take a wrong turn? Hard to tell.]
Damn it. [He curses to himself. He could be lost here all day if he gets turned around. Longer, if the wild magic of the castle really is still active. He should back-track while he still can and get out so he can keep ahead of Carmilla's pursuit.
...But when has Hector ever done the smart thing, really?]
Cesar! [He hisses into the empty darkness of the hallway, hoping his little dog will hear him and come running. He whisper-calls the names of the other pets who have intact ears.] Reynard! Cyrio! Where are you?
[He keeps moving down the halls in their unfamiliar configurations, quietly hailing his undead creations.]
[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.]
[Hector breaths a sigh of relief as he hears the familiar scuffle of tiny nails on stone floor. His lips upturn into a smile, the first in a long while. Cesar careens into him with reckless abandon, and Hector’s focus narrows to just the creature in his joy. He sinks to one knee and reaches out a gloved hand to scratch his lost pet’s gruesome little head.]
Little Cesar. [He coos in the tone he only uses when alone with his pets. He’s about to sing the little pug’s praises, such a good, brave boy, waiting for master to come back to you. Alucard’s words spare the dhampire from having to witness that particular display.
Hector shoves Cesar behind him and pushes up to his feet, feeling keenly the absence of his hammer.]
The Prodigal Son. [Hector returns, equally as grave. This man could be no one else. His fine golden features are a more masculine version of the lovingly rendered portraits of the Lady Lisa, and his silent approach and eerie grace speak of vampiric ancestry.
Cesar, sensing none of the tension between these two men who have both seen to his care, bounds out from behind Hector and spins happily between the two, eager for affection from one or both. ]
I hadn’t thought you inclined to claim your father’s castle.
[There’s bitterness in his voice, for all that Hector wants to avoid a fight. He does not know what the renegade son will do to one of his father’s former generals, nor if his defection will be a point in his favor or against it.]
[Alucard cannot actually judge any displays of affection, because he's the nerd that's turned into a wolf to better communicate such things, as well as gratitude for serving as a listening board for all the grief the year has brought. There is only a common, respectful glance away as this reunion happens, because while oh, Alucard has things to say, there's no denying the dog what's rightfully owed.
The whole thing would be much more endearing if Alucard did not know what it was Hector was capable of, and how he assisted Dracula's madness upon the whole of Wallachia. As it is, it feels more an eccentric facet of a far harder personality that had few qualms with absolute devastation upon an entire country. Such things are hard to get over.
He turns his head only when addressed, the joy of reunion passed for everyone but the little dog who's still about to burst from the seams with joy.]
Adrian. [It is a pointed correction, one with too much gravity for just a word.]
And if I had not, what would this place be? A ruin to be looted and the materials within scattered to the globe, placed in hands that could take the wisdom of ages and apply them with reckless irresponsibility.
[The disapproval runs thick in his tone. He's come to accept living as the curator, librarian, and archivist for both the Hold and the castle over the months, and the responsibility it really entails.]
You've only come back for your pets, I take it?
[It's beating around the crux of the matter, which is learning the extent of shenanigans that passed under the castle's roof during his father's madness. Information Alucard knows he ought to have, but will bring no peace at all.]p
[‘Adrian’ doesn’t immediately stab him, but Hector’s guard is still up. The hatred his fellow humans aim at him has always been straightforward, hurled with all the subtlety of a stone at an outcast. Vampires, on the other hand, delight in making a game of it, taunting their prey like cat and mouse. The whispers in the court had always painted Alucard as a lover of humans and disinclined to partake in the bloodshed his father was known for, but Hector has no false illusions that he counts as ‘human’ to this creature of both worlds. Dracula’s son has reasons enough to wish to strike him down; the only question in Hector’s mind is whether the strike will come straight on or from behind.]
You make a good point. [He agreed reluctantly, because he cannot deny the disaster that could arise from a new and less capable lord or lady possessing the powers and knowledge of this ancient place..] Humanity certainly cannot be trusted with it, and neither can the world of night.
[He keeps his eyes on Adrian, though Cesar’s hopping distracts from his focus. The dear little fool. Hector wishes he could shush him, or will him back to the safely of his lab in case this comes to blows, but he doesn’t have that kind of mental connection with him. Cesar is not made to be a weapon; he is merely a dog given a second chance at life.]
Yes, I seek nothing else from this place, nor from you. I hope they’ve not made a nuisance of themselves.
[Alucard’s use of the plural ‘pets’ gives him hope that more than just Cesar has survived his absence, and he summons up what manners he can in hopes that his way to them will not be barred.]
Humanity can be trusted with it in time, in accordance with my mother's wishes. All the night things can already achieve such things if they have the time and inclination. They have all the time in the world to reach and then superseded these discoveries if they ever desired to do so.
[The undercurrent being clear: they don't want to. And in truth, Alucard is fine with that. It limits the damage that can be done, and that? That is a very good thing indeed.
His face has remained cold as stone throughout all of this, and that doesn't change as he crouches downward, offering one hand out to Cesar. The little thing needs to get all the emotion out already, and a belly rub would probably assist in this.
Moreover, and much more importantly, it frames this as a conversation, not the interrogation that he intends it to be in the most subtle way that Alucard can manage. He's never been one for subtle.]
Have you been followed, forgemaster?
[Which all to say that Hector definitely isn't getting out quickly.]
[Hector knows the saintly Lisa of Lupu only in the reflection he saw in her husband, before and after her loss. Here she is once again, in her son’s unyielding faith in humanity. Hector wishes he could have met her, if only to understand how one woman could shape immortal beings as she did.
It’s not a thought he dares voice in front of her son, though. So he keeps quiet, a skeptical quirk of his brow his only response.
Before Carmilla, Adrian’s vigorous petting of Cesar’s belly would have moved him to trust the dhampir. He’s less naive now. Adrian’s fingernails are likely sharp as claws, and close enough to render irreparable damage if he chooses. Cesar pants and snorts in blissful ignorance.]
It’s Hector. I’m between forges at the moment. [It’s dry, defensive; Hector holds none of the power in this situation and he’s near to sulking.]
I wasn’t followed, so far as I know, but I will be hunted. The sooner I’m on my way, the better for everyone.
I have associates that would suggest forgemasters shouldn't have things like hands, to ensure that the in between is forever.
[Associates is a very vague term for whatever Trevor and Sypha are to him these days besides together in some manifestation. Administering the Hold has introduced Alucard to a variety of Belmont approaches to understanding the world's dark and supernatural underbelly, and there is probably more than one Belmont that would make the no hands for necromancers argument. Having seen what can be wrought, it is a terribly hard argument to mount a defense against.
But all the same, Alucard makes no move to put any such threat into action. If anything, the full of his attention is on administering a perfect belly rub, with Hector's presence a mere afterthought. That's a lie of course, the dog is a safe buffer zone between the two of them, as well as an emotional center for Alucard at the moment. Anger, bitterness, grief, it's all hard to tap into when there's a dog to pet.]
Even coming through the area brings the risk of vampires undoing the careful recovery work that has been undertaken since my father's passing. [It's a very careful choice of words. Passing. Not death, not murder. There's a peaceful part of that word that contrasts directly with how it all happened, in the end.] Was that intentional, or something you've barely accounted for?
[Anger flares up, white hot and sudden within him. His hands clench into tight fists. Hector will answer for his crimes. That is fine. But the implication that devil forging itself in inherently evil is intolerable. His voice goes quiet with rage.]
Would your acquaintances have every blacksmith maimed? Swords can be turned to evil. A herbalist can choose to brew poison- should they all be quelled as well? I could forge marvels, creatures that could be as great a boon to your previous humans as any of the sciences or magicks of Lord Dracula’s castle, if I thought there was any chance they wouldn’t be torn to shreds by people to frightened and superstitious to understand them.
[The sight of this judgmental dhampir lordling stroking his undead dog while decrying the rest of his work stokes the fires within him. He drops down again and forces his fists open to hold out his ungloved hand to the pug.]
Here, boy. [He orders, desperate to put distance between Adrian and Cesar.]
I came for my pets. [He repeats to Adrian.] I raised them, and it is my job to care for them now. No one else will. The people whose safety you fret over so much would throw little Cesar into a fire if they found him. So no, they really weren’t a factor when I decided to come here.
Their relationship with all the darker things of this world has only recently become more nuanced. I'd be the grossest of hypocrites if I agreed so blindly to such an assessment, given what brought this entire nightmare upon Wallachia's head. [Alucard does catch the word your though, and that speaks volumes to Hector's self perception.]
I fought against the things you and...am I incorrect when I say there was a second one with forging skills? [Two workshops does not mean two forgemasters for certain. That much is an educated guess.] Pit things that my father believed to be a productive way to express his grief.
[The word grief causes a pause in Alucard's hand, and that's met with a discontent whine from Cesar. One that only grows louder when Hector tries to force that distance, because now he's being pulled in two different directions.]
Grief that you enabled, with your own work and skills, I suppose.
[The question of why Hector was so willing to help is already starting to answer itself. He doesn't ask it outright yet.]
[Hector wants to protest that the Church was the cause of the war, but even though his cognitive dissonance runs deep, he can no longer excuse Dracula's madness. He frowns, but doesn't contest Adrian's assessment. He does snap his fingers for Cesar's attention, though the dog is loath to move out of belly-rub range.]
Isaac. Your father gathered both of us here. [It stings, hearing that for all the time Hector privately spent thinking on Dracula's wayward son, wondering how he measured up in his lord's eyes, Alucard had never even bothered to learn his or Isaac's names.]
In spite of what you think of our forging, we were trying to mitigate Lord Dracula's wrath. I thought a quick and decisive victory more merciful than a long drawn out campaign.
[As clumsy as Alucard is an interrogator, Hector is even more clumsy a keeper of secrets. He lowers his gaze.]
I thought he'd be satisfied when the perpetrators were punished. I didn't know realize until later than his goal was his own destruction.
[He doesn't owe Adrian an explanation, he tells himself. What's done is done.]
I'm leaving the country, going into hiding. I'm not saying where. Your associates can rest easy- I'll have to give up forging. It's the only way I've any hope of staying off her radar. [Hector spits out 'her' the way most Wallachian peasants hiss when they speak of Dracula. He fears Carmilla in a way he's never feared any other creature.]
He spoke of meeting forgemasters over his travels, but he declined to share names. That was probably for the sake of safety and privacy. [And even here and now, just having a name does precious little. In truth, Alucard had cared precious little for the people met on travels anyway - it was the act of movement that fascintaed him, and learning how scenery morphed across the whole of the contient.
But at the word mitigate Alucard's lips thin, and he finally looks up at Hector with more fire in his eyes than he has throughout all of this.
His next question is a simple one:]
Did you consider my father a person closer to the category of friend before all of this came to pass?
[There's so much more to say here, but the question is important in his eyes. He wants to talk about where, to even boot Hector through the viewing mirror to some remote place, but that'd be too easy, wouldn't it?
[Hector wishes, desperately and foolishly, that he could know what Dracula had told his son about him. It's hard to put into words what he feels...felt...toward the lord of the vampires.
Hector's eyes fix on Cesar, anger subsiding as he remembers that meeting.] Lord Dracula sought me out in his travels. I was living in seclusion, welcomed by no one, and he spent days on the road to nowhere to find me. He was the onl...the first person to look upon my creations and not flinch away or scream for a mob to burn me. He called me a craftsman.
[Hector has basked in the praise, pushing himself even harder in hopes of impressing him further.]
'Friendship'...I don't know if that's the right word for it. We weren't equals. He thought he and his lady could change the world for the better, help people be less afraid of what they can't understand. I would have done anything he asked.
[And in the end, he did, unquestioning, for far longer than he should have.]
[Few people knew his father as anything but a thing to be feared. Even other vampires had that impression, for his father's shadow loomed ever so large over them all. The parts of Dracula that Alucard grew up knowing, well, there is some comfort in not being alone in remembering that part of the man. But it is scant, because Alucard knows that this all may yet turn sour.]
When he asked for your [there's no good word here, so Alucard scuttles the attempt to find the right one] to come to this place, did you question the deeper motives for his desires beyond what he told you outright?
[Alucard's voice manages to hold steady, even though this part is fragile for himself.]
[Hector's eyes narrow. Does Alucard mean to imply that Hector was played by Dracula, that he'd been a tool and nothing more?]
He wanted to avenge the murder of his wife and see to it that the humans were controlled for their own good. He could have seen it done- the corrupt church razed, disease eradicated, an age of enlightenment cultivated out of the darkness.
[Hector had clung to the notion so hard that even when the evidence of Dracula's true design stacked up higher and higher, he'd willed himself blind to it. He can't even say it was out of loyalty, because in the end, he'd turned his back on his lord.]
Humans are animals, not rational enough to rule ourselves. I thought Dracula was something higher, like a shepherd who could tend the masses. A being so old and unfathomably wise...I wasn't sure he could be wrong.
You saw the potential in all of that, and yet you didn't step back, evaluate circumstances, and identify all of those desires as a form of mourning. [In that statement, said with too much weight and regret in them, is the real reason Alucard asked after friendship. The simple potential that someone else beyond himself understood his father's emotions and could have said something to pull him back from the brink. Words from a mouth that didn't share genetics, that might have more weight than a son's.
It's a disappointment, to say the very least. And it's at that point Alucard finally pulls himself up from rubbing at Cesar's belly. The worst moments are past, after all.]
I refuse to comment on your understand of human nature, but as for the matter of my father, you met him at his best. It's almost understandable.
[There's a long sigh that follows.]
You didn't care for justice for what passed, that much is already clear to me. That devotion [it's far more than Alucard had] was the only reason you agreed to such an insane proposal?
Speak plainly. 'Why did I not do what you failed to?' That's what you mean, isn't it?
[Adrian cannot know the length and depth of how completely unqualified Hector is to act as a counselor to anyone. He's never loved anyone, only lost the parents he'd killed for their abuse, and his view of humanity is 'best avoided, though no need to go out of the way to be cruel'. Asking why he didn't understand Dracula's grief is like asking a fish about the finer points of flight.]
I could not have stopped him if I had tried. I didn't try. Causalities were unavoidable, but I could try to direct the forces in such a way to reduce them, rather than letting the vampires run free and make a sport of it. I chose poorly, and even more poorly when I believed that bitch who said Dracula would be better relieved of his command.
[He's still kneeling when Adrian rises, finally able to collect his dog from vampiric clutches. Cesar's little body is warm when he jumps into Hector's arms, in a reanimated life rather than undeath.]
Forging is my reason for living, and I am going to have to abandon it. That's the price of my crimes. If you wish to add some penance above that, do it and be quick about it. Otherwise, I'm taking my pets and leaving.
[Meaning yeah, you called him out on it exactly, Hector. Alucard has the good sense to look at least slightly embarrassed about that much, and as for the rest, well. His father never gave biographical details of most others he met in his travels - Hector included.
He shifts his weight, folding arms over his chest and listening to the rest very carefully. I didn't try seems to acknowledge some level of culpability in all of this, even if that is not what Alucard seeks at this point. He had his answer moments before, and it's a new pain to deal with.
Carmilla though. Alucard makes a soft noise at the mention, and he understands things a little better now. The potential for a coup was only clear after Trevor and Sypha investigated the damage Sypha caused in Brăila.]
A decision that brought this all to it's conclusion. [They're words meant for himself. There's no gratitude in Alucard, but there will be a great amount of time spent dwelling on the new information.]
Anything additional would be pointless cruelty. [There's definitely a sadder gloom over Alucard now, settled in his shoulders and the way they safe.] The rest of your associates are...they have free run of this place. They're doubtlessly aware of your presence.
[Hector has the feeling of being judged and ultimately dismissed. He can't say what end Adrian has in all of this, but it seems he is being given permission to gather together his pets and depart. He gently lets Cesar down and rises.]
Carmilla will turn her sights back to this castle, once she's secured her position back in Styria. It's too tempting a trophy for her to resist. If you're lucky, Isaac will clash with her before then. I hear he ended up across the sea somewhere. He'll not rest until he destroys her for her betrayal.
[The information isn't an olive branch. It's more like a toll paid for safe passage. If Adrian truly means to let Hector leave here with Cesar and his brethren in tow, he'll have earned the warning.]
Cesar, show me to the others. [The little pug isn't great with orders, but he seems to grasp that one, and yips in excitement.]
[The part about Carmilla seeing the castle as a prize to be taken. That was the fear in all of this, what the castle might mean to others. Being proven right has no joy in it, all Alucard can do is manage a tired noise at that fact.
As for Isaac, well, Alucard cannot say much. He doesn't know the man, he only understands that there was a deeper set loyalty there - something Alucard did not have because he owed too much to his mother, and something Hector failed to have for however Carmilla persuaded him.]
We've anticipated it. [That's no royal we, but Hector doesn't need to know it.
Following Cesar to the others means taking a sudden right down the corridor, and following the pug for a little while until he reaches a door on the left that's open. Alucard is at the very end of this strange procession, far too still. There's far too much information to absorb, and there are important farewells to focus on.
The room is one of the many siderooms of the castle, this one featuring two sofas, two armchairs, and cushions set around the room for creature comforts. The window on the far left has a set bench with even more cushions there, creating a sunny sort of nook for all lazing purposes. Within are all of Hector's other companions, and all at once, there is an ambush.
[Hector weathers the onslaught happily, cooing each creature’s name in turn as they tumble against their fellows, vying for the necromancer’s attention. He scratches and caresses as he checks each one over. Their little bodies are unable to heal themselves, so the responsibility falls to Hector.
The dhampir momentarily ignored, Hector pricks a finger on an exposed fang and offers it up to his cat to suckle like a newborn. The exposed muscles on her hindquarters has deteriorated, and in the absence of his forge tools, blood is the easiest way to transfer his energy to her. Her eyes glow a brighter blue, and the flesh begins to take on a healthier color.
The pets’ needs seem to, be finally takes the time to look around the room. It looks comfortable, lived in. The cat’s backside aside, his animals are surprisingly well. He turns to study Adrian more closely.]
[Alucard's eyes look out of the window and only for the reunion of Hector and his menagerie. It's as much privacy for the matter as he is willing to allow, as he has absolutely zero reason to feel comfortable letting Hector alone in any part of the castle.
It's less for Hector's sake than the animals anyway. While knowing their names is helpful (he made his own up, although there is one cat that seems to only ever respond to You said in a deeply exasperated tone), the rest is towards their sentiment for the forgemaster.
Even the scent of blood in the air provokes no reaction. Only a deep sniff, like clearing one's nose.
His eyes do meet Hector's when the question is asked though, and there is a nod of his head.]
Yes, although I am afraid figuring out the appropriate way to do that took slight trial and error. [They didn't come with guides, after all.] I also couldn't very well ignore them.
[That’s a bald faced lie. Alucard absolutely could have ignored them. The castle’s former residents had, except for the ones who were inclined to try to kick at them when they passed.
For a moment, Hector sees the Dracula he’d first known in Adrian’s profile. Maybe it’s the mother he sees reflected in both of them, he has no way of knowing. Whatever it’s origin, it’s something Hector can respect. He inclines his head.]
Thank you.
[He pauses, still absently stroking the pets that Adrian has sheltered. He thinks of the castle, still partially in ruins, and the various forces who would try to seize it. In spite of Alucard’s ‘we’, he appears to be here alone.]
The repairs to the castle’s defenses would go more quickly with more hands. I could make creatures that could help you, before I go.
[It’s an offer that could cost him his hands, but he makes it anyway. He failed the father. Maybe he can start making amends by helping the son, if he’ll allow it.]
[It may be a lie from where Hector sits, but it absolutely isn't from Alucard's purview. Forged things they might be, but unlike the things that were used as foot soldiers in his father's army, they had done no harm to anyone. If anything, they had been a boon, although those are words Hector hasn't earned. There's no need for him to know that his creations became Alucard's therapy dogs (and cats) (and others).
At the offer, Alucard is quiet. There's no giveaway in his face about how he might lean, but after a minute or two, which implies an honest consideration, he shakes his head no.]
That would cost you time and bring too much attention here. [He doesn't know how long forging takes. It's a risk he has no intention of bringing on upon himself. Or Trevor and Sypha. They can prepare for Carmilla in their own way, without betraying anything that could be read as assisting an escaped prisoner.]
This home can be defended in other ways. If you intend to see to your safety, that must take priority.
[Hector nods. He won’t press the issue. His presence here is a risk, there’s no denying that.]
I hope for your sake that you’re right. You doubtless know the castle better than I.
[There are supplies in his quarters that he’d hoped to collect- fresh clothes, a weapon for the journey, among other things- but having been granted this much, he’s not going to press his luck further. Nothing is irreplaceable, aside from his little menagerie.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Here to see a man about a dog
It hadn't been easy to escape Carmilla's clutches. She had guarded her pet forgemaster jealously. It had taken time and more cunning than Hector realized he possessed to create a means of escape, but he'd managed it- barely. He'd sent his creatures out in different directions, hoping to obscure his own path from pursuit, and made his way back to his former lord's fortress. Uniform ripped and dirtied, hair mussed, lip split, and body bruised, he limps toward the once splendid home of Dracula Vlad Ţepeş.
With Lord Dracula dead, the castle offers no protection for Hector, but there is still something he needs from within the gates. The innocent devils and night creatures will all be gone, sent out to fight in that final battle or else killed or escaped in the confusion after. His pets, however, may still linger. Hector can hope. It's all he has left.
The sight of the grounded castle sends a stab of pain through his heart. Lord Dracula... Hector had played a part in the betrayal and fall of his lord. After he'd burned his parents' cabin to the ground, Hector had thought he'd never have another home. He knows now, by the shape of the emptiness within him, that he did.
The entryways to the castle have always been temperamental, and Hector half-expects the little side door he had used to come and go for his walks to bar itself. Castlevania is a living thing, Hector, Lord Dracula had explained when first Hector arrived. The door opens. Perhaps it doesn't know -or without its lord, can't be bothered to care- about Hector's sins.
The necromancer makes his way carefully through the halls. He is quiet in reverence and also in concentration- the doors and stairways in the castle often changed during his short residence here, and he isn't sure if the way to his laboratory will be the same now as when he left it. There is also the possibility of traps or enemies. He had to leave his hammer behind in Carmilla's keep. She'd only allowed him the use of it while he was supervised in her forges. He made his means of escape back in his cell, with two pilfered coins used to strike a spark. Unarmed, it is better to proceed with caution and avoid any chance encounters.
He turns a corner, but the flight of stairs he needs isn't there. Did it move, or did he take a wrong turn? Hard to tell.]
Damn it. [He curses to himself. He could be lost here all day if he gets turned around. Longer, if the wild magic of the castle really is still active. He should back-track while he still can and get out so he can keep ahead of Carmilla's pursuit.
...But when has Hector ever done the smart thing, really?]
Cesar! [He hisses into the empty darkness of the hallway, hoping his little dog will hear him and come running. He whisper-calls the names of the other pets who have intact ears.] Reynard! Cyrio! Where are you?
[He keeps moving down the halls in their unfamiliar configurations, quietly hailing his undead creations.]
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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.]
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Little Cesar. [He coos in the tone he only uses when alone with his pets. He’s about to sing the little pug’s praises, such a good, brave boy, waiting for master to come back to you. Alucard’s words spare the dhampire from having to witness that particular display.
Hector shoves Cesar behind him and pushes up to his feet, feeling keenly the absence of his hammer.]
The Prodigal Son. [Hector returns, equally as grave. This man could be no one else. His fine golden features are a more masculine version of the lovingly rendered portraits of the Lady Lisa, and his silent approach and eerie grace speak of vampiric ancestry.
Cesar, sensing none of the tension between these two men who have both seen to his care, bounds out from behind Hector and spins happily between the two, eager for affection from one or both. ]
I hadn’t thought you inclined to claim your father’s castle.
[There’s bitterness in his voice, for all that Hector wants to avoid a fight. He does not know what the renegade son will do to one of his father’s former generals, nor if his defection will be a point in his favor or against it.]
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The whole thing would be much more endearing if Alucard did not know what it was Hector was capable of, and how he assisted Dracula's madness upon the whole of Wallachia. As it is, it feels more an eccentric facet of a far harder personality that had few qualms with absolute devastation upon an entire country. Such things are hard to get over.
He turns his head only when addressed, the joy of reunion passed for everyone but the little dog who's still about to burst from the seams with joy.]
Adrian. [It is a pointed correction, one with too much gravity for just a word.]
And if I had not, what would this place be? A ruin to be looted and the materials within scattered to the globe, placed in hands that could take the wisdom of ages and apply them with reckless irresponsibility.
[The disapproval runs thick in his tone. He's come to accept living as the curator, librarian, and archivist for both the Hold and the castle over the months, and the responsibility it really entails.]
You've only come back for your pets, I take it?
[It's beating around the crux of the matter, which is learning the extent of shenanigans that passed under the castle's roof during his father's madness. Information Alucard knows he ought to have, but will bring no peace at all.]p
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You make a good point. [He agreed reluctantly, because he cannot deny the disaster that could arise from a new and less capable lord or lady possessing the powers and knowledge of this ancient place..] Humanity certainly cannot be trusted with it, and neither can the world of night.
[He keeps his eyes on Adrian, though Cesar’s hopping distracts from his focus. The dear little fool. Hector wishes he could shush him, or will him back to the safely of his lab in case this comes to blows, but he doesn’t have that kind of mental connection with him. Cesar is not made to be a weapon; he is merely a dog given a second chance at life.]
Yes, I seek nothing else from this place, nor from you. I hope they’ve not made a nuisance of themselves.
[Alucard’s use of the plural ‘pets’ gives him hope that more than just Cesar has survived his absence, and he summons up what manners he can in hopes that his way to them will not be barred.]
Have I your leave to collect them?
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[The undercurrent being clear: they don't want to. And in truth, Alucard is fine with that. It limits the damage that can be done, and that? That is a very good thing indeed.
His face has remained cold as stone throughout all of this, and that doesn't change as he crouches downward, offering one hand out to Cesar. The little thing needs to get all the emotion out already, and a belly rub would probably assist in this.
Moreover, and much more importantly, it frames this as a conversation, not the interrogation that he intends it to be in the most subtle way that Alucard can manage. He's never been one for subtle.]
Have you been followed, forgemaster?
[Which all to say that Hector definitely isn't getting out quickly.]
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It’s not a thought he dares voice in front of her son, though. So he keeps quiet, a skeptical quirk of his brow his only response.
Before Carmilla, Adrian’s vigorous petting of Cesar’s belly would have moved him to trust the dhampir. He’s less naive now. Adrian’s fingernails are likely sharp as claws, and close enough to render irreparable damage if he chooses. Cesar pants and snorts in blissful ignorance.]
It’s Hector. I’m between forges at the moment. [It’s dry, defensive; Hector holds none of the power in this situation and he’s near to sulking.]
I wasn’t followed, so far as I know, but I will be hunted. The sooner I’m on my way, the better for everyone.
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[Associates is a very vague term for whatever Trevor and Sypha are to him these days besides together in some manifestation. Administering the Hold has introduced Alucard to a variety of Belmont approaches to understanding the world's dark and supernatural underbelly, and there is probably more than one Belmont that would make the no hands for necromancers argument. Having seen what can be wrought, it is a terribly hard argument to mount a defense against.
But all the same, Alucard makes no move to put any such threat into action. If anything, the full of his attention is on administering a perfect belly rub, with Hector's presence a mere afterthought. That's a lie of course, the dog is a safe buffer zone between the two of them, as well as an emotional center for Alucard at the moment. Anger, bitterness, grief, it's all hard to tap into when there's a dog to pet.]
Even coming through the area brings the risk of vampires undoing the careful recovery work that has been undertaken since my father's passing. [It's a very careful choice of words. Passing. Not death, not murder. There's a peaceful part of that word that contrasts directly with how it all happened, in the end.] Was that intentional, or something you've barely accounted for?
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Would your acquaintances have every blacksmith maimed? Swords can be turned to evil. A herbalist can choose to brew poison- should they all be quelled as well? I could forge marvels, creatures that could be as great a boon to your previous humans as any of the sciences or magicks of Lord Dracula’s castle, if I thought there was any chance they wouldn’t be torn to shreds by people to frightened and superstitious to understand them.
[The sight of this judgmental dhampir lordling stroking his undead dog while decrying the rest of his work stokes the fires within him. He drops down again and forces his fists open to hold out his ungloved hand to the pug.]
Here, boy. [He orders, desperate to put distance between Adrian and Cesar.]
I came for my pets. [He repeats to Adrian.] I raised them, and it is my job to care for them now. No one else will. The people whose safety you fret over so much would throw little Cesar into a fire if they found him. So no, they really weren’t a factor when I decided to come here.
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I fought against the things you and...am I incorrect when I say there was a second one with forging skills? [Two workshops does not mean two forgemasters for certain. That much is an educated guess.] Pit things that my father believed to be a productive way to express his grief.
[The word grief causes a pause in Alucard's hand, and that's met with a discontent whine from Cesar. One that only grows louder when Hector tries to force that distance, because now he's being pulled in two different directions.]
Grief that you enabled, with your own work and skills, I suppose.
[The question of why Hector was so willing to help is already starting to answer itself. He doesn't ask it outright yet.]
Where do you intend to go then?
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Isaac. Your father gathered both of us here. [It stings, hearing that for all the time Hector privately spent thinking on Dracula's wayward son, wondering how he measured up in his lord's eyes, Alucard had never even bothered to learn his or Isaac's names.]
In spite of what you think of our forging, we were trying to mitigate Lord Dracula's wrath. I thought a quick and decisive victory more merciful than a long drawn out campaign.
[As clumsy as Alucard is an interrogator, Hector is even more clumsy a keeper of secrets. He lowers his gaze.]
I thought he'd be satisfied when the perpetrators were punished. I didn't know realize until later than his goal was his own destruction.
[He doesn't owe Adrian an explanation, he tells himself. What's done is done.]
I'm leaving the country, going into hiding. I'm not saying where. Your associates can rest easy- I'll have to give up forging. It's the only way I've any hope of staying off her radar. [Hector spits out 'her' the way most Wallachian peasants hiss when they speak of Dracula. He fears Carmilla in a way he's never feared any other creature.]
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But at the word mitigate Alucard's lips thin, and he finally looks up at Hector with more fire in his eyes than he has throughout all of this.
His next question is a simple one:]
Did you consider my father a person closer to the category of friend before all of this came to pass?
[There's so much more to say here, but the question is important in his eyes. He wants to talk about where, to even boot Hector through the viewing mirror to some remote place, but that'd be too easy, wouldn't it?
The answer is all that matters.]
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Hector's eyes fix on Cesar, anger subsiding as he remembers that meeting.] Lord Dracula sought me out in his travels. I was living in seclusion, welcomed by no one, and he spent days on the road to nowhere to find me. He was the onl...the first person to look upon my creations and not flinch away or scream for a mob to burn me. He called me a craftsman.
[Hector has basked in the praise, pushing himself even harder in hopes of impressing him further.]
'Friendship'...I don't know if that's the right word for it. We weren't equals. He thought he and his lady could change the world for the better, help people be less afraid of what they can't understand. I would have done anything he asked.
[And in the end, he did, unquestioning, for far longer than he should have.]
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[Few people knew his father as anything but a thing to be feared. Even other vampires had that impression, for his father's shadow loomed ever so large over them all. The parts of Dracula that Alucard grew up knowing, well, there is some comfort in not being alone in remembering that part of the man. But it is scant, because Alucard knows that this all may yet turn sour.]
When he asked for your [there's no good word here, so Alucard scuttles the attempt to find the right one] to come to this place, did you question the deeper motives for his desires beyond what he told you outright?
[Alucard's voice manages to hold steady, even though this part is fragile for himself.]
And if you did not, why is that the case?
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He wanted to avenge the murder of his wife and see to it that the humans were controlled for their own good. He could have seen it done- the corrupt church razed, disease eradicated, an age of enlightenment cultivated out of the darkness.
[Hector had clung to the notion so hard that even when the evidence of Dracula's true design stacked up higher and higher, he'd willed himself blind to it. He can't even say it was out of loyalty, because in the end, he'd turned his back on his lord.]
Humans are animals, not rational enough to rule ourselves. I thought Dracula was something higher, like a shepherd who could tend the masses. A being so old and unfathomably wise...I wasn't sure he could be wrong.
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It's a disappointment, to say the very least. And it's at that point Alucard finally pulls himself up from rubbing at Cesar's belly. The worst moments are past, after all.]
I refuse to comment on your understand of human nature, but as for the matter of my father, you met him at his best. It's almost understandable.
[There's a long sigh that follows.]
You didn't care for justice for what passed, that much is already clear to me. That devotion [it's far more than Alucard had] was the only reason you agreed to such an insane proposal?
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[Adrian cannot know the length and depth of how completely unqualified Hector is to act as a counselor to anyone. He's never loved anyone, only lost the parents he'd killed for their abuse, and his view of humanity is 'best avoided, though no need to go out of the way to be cruel'. Asking why he didn't understand Dracula's grief is like asking a fish about the finer points of flight.]
I could not have stopped him if I had tried. I didn't try. Causalities were unavoidable, but I could try to direct the forces in such a way to reduce them, rather than letting the vampires run free and make a sport of it. I chose poorly, and even more poorly when I believed that bitch who said Dracula would be better relieved of his command.
[He's still kneeling when Adrian rises, finally able to collect his dog from vampiric clutches. Cesar's little body is warm when he jumps into Hector's arms, in a reanimated life rather than undeath.]
Forging is my reason for living, and I am going to have to abandon it. That's the price of my crimes. If you wish to add some penance above that, do it and be quick about it. Otherwise, I'm taking my pets and leaving.
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[Meaning yeah, you called him out on it exactly, Hector. Alucard has the good sense to look at least slightly embarrassed about that much, and as for the rest, well. His father never gave biographical details of most others he met in his travels - Hector included.
He shifts his weight, folding arms over his chest and listening to the rest very carefully. I didn't try seems to acknowledge some level of culpability in all of this, even if that is not what Alucard seeks at this point. He had his answer moments before, and it's a new pain to deal with.
Carmilla though. Alucard makes a soft noise at the mention, and he understands things a little better now. The potential for a coup was only clear after Trevor and Sypha investigated the damage Sypha caused in Brăila.]
A decision that brought this all to it's conclusion. [They're words meant for himself. There's no gratitude in Alucard, but there will be a great amount of time spent dwelling on the new information.]
Anything additional would be pointless cruelty. [There's definitely a sadder gloom over Alucard now, settled in his shoulders and the way they safe.] The rest of your associates are...they have free run of this place. They're doubtlessly aware of your presence.
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Carmilla will turn her sights back to this castle, once she's secured her position back in Styria. It's too tempting a trophy for her to resist. If you're lucky, Isaac will clash with her before then. I hear he ended up across the sea somewhere. He'll not rest until he destroys her for her betrayal.
[The information isn't an olive branch. It's more like a toll paid for safe passage. If Adrian truly means to let Hector leave here with Cesar and his brethren in tow, he'll have earned the warning.]
Cesar, show me to the others. [The little pug isn't great with orders, but he seems to grasp that one, and yips in excitement.]
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[The part about Carmilla seeing the castle as a prize to be taken. That was the fear in all of this, what the castle might mean to others. Being proven right has no joy in it, all Alucard can do is manage a tired noise at that fact.
As for Isaac, well, Alucard cannot say much. He doesn't know the man, he only understands that there was a deeper set loyalty there - something Alucard did not have because he owed too much to his mother, and something Hector failed to have for however Carmilla persuaded him.]
We've anticipated it. [That's no royal we, but Hector doesn't need to know it.
Following Cesar to the others means taking a sudden right down the corridor, and following the pug for a little while until he reaches a door on the left that's open. Alucard is at the very end of this strange procession, far too still. There's far too much information to absorb, and there are important farewells to focus on.
The room is one of the many siderooms of the castle, this one featuring two sofas, two armchairs, and cushions set around the room for creature comforts. The window on the far left has a set bench with even more cushions there, creating a sunny sort of nook for all lazing purposes. Within are all of Hector's other companions, and all at once, there is an ambush.
A weird, fuzzy, undead ambush of affection.]
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The dhampir momentarily ignored, Hector pricks a finger on an exposed fang and offers it up to his cat to suckle like a newborn. The exposed muscles on her hindquarters has deteriorated, and in the absence of his forge tools, blood is the easiest way to transfer his energy to her. Her eyes glow a brighter blue, and the flesh begins to take on a healthier color.
The pets’ needs seem to, be finally takes the time to look around the room. It looks comfortable, lived in. The cat’s backside aside, his animals are surprisingly well. He turns to study Adrian more closely.]
Have you... been caring for them?
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It's less for Hector's sake than the animals anyway. While knowing their names is helpful (he made his own up, although there is one cat that seems to only ever respond to You said in a deeply exasperated tone), the rest is towards their sentiment for the forgemaster.
Even the scent of blood in the air provokes no reaction. Only a deep sniff, like clearing one's nose.
His eyes do meet Hector's when the question is asked though, and there is a nod of his head.]
Yes, although I am afraid figuring out the appropriate way to do that took slight trial and error. [They didn't come with guides, after all.] I also couldn't very well ignore them.
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For a moment, Hector sees the Dracula he’d first known in Adrian’s profile. Maybe it’s the mother he sees reflected in both of them, he has no way of knowing. Whatever it’s origin, it’s something Hector can respect. He inclines his head.]
Thank you.
[He pauses, still absently stroking the pets that Adrian has sheltered. He thinks of the castle, still partially in ruins, and the various forces who would try to seize it. In spite of Alucard’s ‘we’, he appears to be here alone.]
The repairs to the castle’s defenses would go more quickly with more hands. I could make creatures that could help you, before I go.
[It’s an offer that could cost him his hands, but he makes it anyway. He failed the father. Maybe he can start making amends by helping the son, if he’ll allow it.]
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At the offer, Alucard is quiet. There's no giveaway in his face about how he might lean, but after a minute or two, which implies an honest consideration, he shakes his head no.]
That would cost you time and bring too much attention here. [He doesn't know how long forging takes. It's a risk he has no intention of bringing on upon himself. Or Trevor and Sypha. They can prepare for Carmilla in their own way, without betraying anything that could be read as assisting an escaped prisoner.]
This home can be defended in other ways. If you intend to see to your safety, that must take priority.
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I hope for your sake that you’re right. You doubtless know the castle better than I.
[There are supplies in his quarters that he’d hoped to collect- fresh clothes, a weapon for the journey, among other things- but having been granted this much, he’s not going to press his luck further. Nothing is irreplaceable, aside from his little menagerie.]
I’ll make sure we’re not seen leaving here.
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