[Sitting directly in between Hector and the castle is probably the only way to really guarantee catching Hector's attention. He stops, out of breath, and stares down the wolf.]
Is he here? I will hunt him down and have my revenge of him.
[He's shaking with anger, amplified by the fatigue of traveling with barely a thought of rest.]
He has to be here. There's nowhere else he'd choose, that over-dramatic bastard. Move aside!
[The wolf sighs. The form isn't enough to break Hector of whatever rage has claimed him now, and so Alucard is himself again. There's no coat over his shoulders this time, just his shirt and trousers, and his face is barely changed. There's something hung around his neck, if the flash of metal around the collar of his shirt is anything to go by, but that's the only part of him that has truly changed.]
His tone is firm and sober, hoping the same qualities might transfer to Hector and his bullheadedness.]
There is no one here aside from myself, Hector. There has been no one here beside myself for the past week.
[Hector looks past Alucard, as if he expects Isaac to pop out from the treeline and prove him a liar. His rival does not appear. The fairy at his shoulder doesn't whisper to him of things unseen to his human eyes. Hector shakes his head.]
That doesn't make sense. Everything he's done has been in parallel.
[He can't think of a reason Adrian would lie about this, though to be honest, he can barely think at all.]
He wants me to find him. He said I was too weak and pathetic as I was, and that I had to regain my powers so I could face him.
[He clenches his fists. Dracula had given the Wallachians a year before he launched his attack. Did Isaac think to elude him for the same interval?]
I've missed an entire sequence of events here to make sense of just about anything you've said.
[Alucard's in no mood to yell aross the threshold of his own home, and so he steps forward to approach Hector properly. He would be a liar if he said he wasn't also taking advantage of the movement to see if Hector has been followed by certain friends that Alucard likes much, much more than Hector himself, but asking after pets is not the correct thing to do right now.
His frown is clear though, as is the tension in Alucard's frame.]
[Hector’s pets, unfortunately for Alucard, remain at his home, in the care of a hastily-constructed golem. A mission of revenge is no place for such gentle souls.
Hector looks Adrian over. The sight of him, almost entirely unchanged, brings back memories of the times of his life better left forgotten. He looks away.]
After I left, I gave up forging. I ran until I was certain I’d buried any trail the demons of my past could follow, and I slunk away to a backwater village no one had ever heard of to spend the rest of my life in seclusion.
Then I met Rosaly. [Speaking her name twists the dagger in his gut another turn. He feels her absence viscerally, as if he’s been carved up and every vital part of him removed.
His voice comes out in a growl.] I don’t know...if Isaac took this long to find me...or if he knew all along, and was just waiting...letting me find true happiness just so he could rip it away.
[His voice breaks. His anger is the only pillar left within him, keeping him from total collapse. He has to hold on to it.]
He told the villagers she was a witch. Rosaly spent every day of her life caring for their wounds, curing their fevers, loving them beyond what any person could deserve...and they burned her.
[There had been nothing left but ash. Isaac has seen to it. No flesh or bones left that Hector could have revived even at the height of his power.]
[Alucard's still as Hector explains. His friends are at home, and it's a mark of slight wisdom that Hector has made that decision. The world's instructed him a little more over the past several years, but that's until Hector says the w word.
At that, Alucard's features become harder set. He knows the little bubble of anger that begins to rise in his stomach. He's had it every time some new horrible rumor of a witch execution passes by through the Speakers or when Trevor and Sypha return home. There is some church man, the Speakers say, who wants to write a book about detecting witches. That the title might be Malleus Maleficarum, and Alucard hates it.
His mother's death wasn't one man's attempt at gaining power in the church. It was a herald of things to come. Hector's words only confirm it.]
I understand the devestation of that kind of loss.
[After all, what had brought Hector to this castle in the first place? And is Hector not weathering that grief better than Dracula, by focusing on only one man rather than the world?
Those are thoughts to unpack later.]
I do not know the man, beyond the fact he is why Carmilla never made to these doors. I cannot say what his intentions are. [Alucard sighs. He can't believe the words that come out of his own mouth.]
Come in then. There's little to be gained from discussing this where a passing breeze can overhear.
[Grief has made Hector selfish. He’s seen the parallel between his Rosaly and Lisa of Lupu, but until he comes face to face with her son’s empathy, he hadn’t registered it. Hector’s shattered heart screams that no one could possibly comprehend the depths of his pain...but that’s hyperbole born of his despair. Adrian has stood where he now stands, or close enough.
He nods. Not knowing where to pursue Isaac, he’s directionless. Having anyone, even the dhampir, tell him where to go is a relief. When they are safely within the walls, he can speak further on Isaac.]
Isaac loved Dracula, fanatically. He wants everyone who had a hand in his fall destroyed. He’ll turn his sights to you and your hunters in time, if I don’t stop him. He’s smart, and patient, and nothing is sacred to him.
[He draws his hammer, the one that he’d abandoned at Carmilla’s keep, and that Isaac had dropped at his feet as he told Hector what he’d done.]
He said he couldn’t be bothered to kill me until I regained my strength. It’s all a sick game to him.
[The castle doors open without Alucard uttering a word or even gesturing. He simply starts walking towards them, and they open just enough to let both men pass through.]
If I was a creature of hubris, I might say something about what my father's defeat required. But I refuse to invite ruin upon this house by tempting the fates, and you have a far stronger measure of the man than I ever will.
[Alucard's words don't echo in the main hall, which has been set to rights. Oh, there are still scars of battle on the floor and along the walls, but anything well and truly destroyed has long since been replaced. Alucard keeps walking, past the grand staircase and off to the side, staring down a corridor.]
It may be a game, but it is also vengence for an idealized version of a man. [The Dracula of legend. Not the one who spent twenty years living a life as ordinary as anyone else's.]
I have no interest in defending anything but this home and my... [nope don't say anything kind of relationshippy, that's just rude Alucard] those who share this place with me. So answer me this: is he inclined to come for the three of us and save you for last, or vice versa?
[Alucard's debated how to address the hammer being out. He doesn't like it, not one bit.] Please keep that thing closer to the ground unless absolutely required.
[Hector huffs out a disbelieving breath, but lowers his hammer. He doesn't mean to use it against Adrian, or anyone else but Isaac and his creatures.]
I believe his focus is on me, for now. He didn't pursue me until he'd routed the vampire generals. It will likely be the same before he turns his sights to the Belmont or you.
[He follows where Alucard leads, having no clue where he is being taken. Any knowledge he had of the castle in the past, he counts as completely unreliable now.]
When I talked theory with your father when he sought me out near Rhodes, he mentioned a type of crystal he'd discovered that he thought could enhance my work. He was cultivating them in the catacombs during the campaign, but we never had the chance to test them. They could still be there.
[Isaac isn't here, but at least if he can get his hands on them, this trip will not have been wasted.]
Not that there were many remaining. [They're words that Alucard murmurs darkly. Almost all of them were caught up in the madness of himself, Trevor, and Sypha storming the castle. He had only realized some fled months after, as he began to clean the castle.]
Singular in purpose. I suppose that would fit, based on what you've said so far.
[As it turns out, Alucard is going to the kitchens. They are a part of a newer section of the castle, built after his mother first arrived. What did Dracula need a kitchen for before he had a human living there?
It's a spacious room, with a large hearth sat along the outer wall, and a length of wood counters running alongside the perimeter. One of Dracula's inventions, a cast iron stove with two burners, sits not too far from the fireplace, and the rest of the room is lined with cabinets. Another work bench dominates the center of the room, and towards one end of it is a set of three stools. Alucard gestures Hector towards them.]
You will need to give me more details on what they are supposed to do. Even I don't know all the secrets of this place.
[This is in fact bullshit. Alucard ran into them while cleaning, but their purpose was not obvious at the time. Now that he knows, there's no small amount of hesitancy with the thought of handing them over to Hector.]
All the same, he wouldn't jeopardize his plans by dividing his focus, especially if he knows exactly where you'll be when he's ready to find you. [With the castle now stationary, and Alucard its devoted guardian, Isaac truly had no cause to rush.
It feels strange to sit down in the kitchen like he's an old friend come 'round for tea, but Hector sits, obedient while Adrian stands between him and the materials he needs.]
He'll have taken notes on them, at least on the theory. [Dracula had been meticulous when Hector had met him, though he'd changed much after the loss of his wife. He honestly had no idea whether Dracula had kept up with any of his research past that point.]
What I made before was born of necromancy, and the things that were not pure reanimation, were possessed with spirits of hell. I won't make such things again.
[Won't, not can't. Rosaly would not want him to fall back on his past sins.]
I know I can make something else, with the right materials. A creature of conjuration, something neither good nor evil, who would harm no one unless I will it so.
[He gestures to the fairy, who has flitted off to hover beside a wall where, before Dracula's long-ago renovations, must have held a door. She points at it, delighting in revealing what she thinks to be a secret path.]
She is proof it can be done. She's weak, made purely from inorganic matter and my magic, but with the power from the crystals, I could make a real weapon that could see Isaac put into a grave.
[It's a logical assumption that Hector hasn't eaten, so Alucard focuses on that. It gives his hands something to do while Hector talks, disguising the fact the dhampir is making a lot of careful calculations in all of this. He heads over to a little breadbox on the counter first and takes out a half consumed loaf, and then reaches for the knife block just a few inches away.]
I'm bound to this place, that much is correct.
[He's already scared off mobs. What's one more person with an army of forged creatures? The only problem is if they blaze a war path en route, but that is a discussion to be had with Trevor.]
Quite a few books were not...they weren't destroyed, but the pages were sent everywhere, and the combination of matching pages up to their original text and then rebinding them is a lifetime of work in and of itself. It impacted his research journals, the general collection, my mother's work....everything.
[Which isn't a lie in the slightest. Alucard's picked up book binding as a matter of requirement, and he does it when sleep comes poorly to him.]
Conjuration is a different school of magic all together, is it not? [That's really a Sypha level question, isn't it?
But when Hector gestures at the fairy, he leaves the bread and knife be and walks over, trying to get a better sense of the creature.]
Do you really need to forge something entirely unique? Isaac is a man, just as any other.
[Hector hasn't had an appetite since his last meal with his wife, and he watches Adrian prepare food with apathy.]
I am sorry to hear it. [Those pages would be relics of the times before the Lady Lisa's death, and likely invaluable to the dhampir.]
It's a different application of the same theory. Devil forging uses elements of conjuring and necromancy, among other things. [It's one of the reasons it is so rare a talent, because of the delicate blending of various magics.
The fairy preens under the attention, flitting around to show off her wings, but ultimately always returning to the spot on the wall that she's decided is interesting. She's a spirit of minor healing and major curiosity, and Hector has relied on her to help find shortcuts to the castle.]
Isaac is stronger than I am. I could try to build an army of night creatures to match his, but...I wouldn't be able to control them. They would leave a wake of destruction in their stead, and I won't do that again. I swore to her I wouldn't.
The one thing Isaac could never rival me in is innovation. He makes things that kill, and do it well, but he has no spark of creativity beyond that. If I create something he can't anticipate, I'll have the edge I need to finish him.
[Unfortunately, Alucard's compelled to shove food at people. His mother raised him right, thank you very much.]
It'll be completed, in time.
[Alucard watches the fairy while Hector explains. His knowledge of magic is no where near that of say, Sypha. It never will be. But he can follow it all well enough, and what Hector has explained leaves a very sour taste in his mouth.]
So it takes the general framework of one and overlays it on the other? I want to be sure I'm understanding this correctly.
[Trevor is probably the better person to make this judgement call, although Alucard knows that the answer would be to tell Hector to go fuck himself and simply take over the matter of Isaac once and for all. Which is probably the best solution, all things considered.
Satisfied with inspecting the fairy, Alucard returns to his original task. The bread's sliced, and he reaches down under the cabinet opening a small cooling chest. There's leftover venison in there from last night's meal, and he puts a few thin slices of it over the bread. All of that goes onto the plate, and that's brought over to Hector.]
One thing you'd need to do, in order to not break that promise, is bait him into a place of final confrontation. That's more strategic than anything else, but something to bear in mind as you keep that promise.
[Alucard recognizes the desire for fidelity to the dead. God does he ever.]
I would joke about if he would expect alliance, but when all is said and done, I couldn't promise your own safety after that. [Alucard knows the company he keeps, after all.] But is it only creation that he won't be able to anticipate?
[Hector looks at the sandwich, then slowly picks it up and takes a bite without really tasting.]
It's hard to explain. Before, the creatures I made for Dracula's army were flesh from this world combined with spirits from beyond- necromancy, conjuration, binding. The components colored the end results, and they ended up with dark hungers. The fairy is composed with no such parts to taint her. Her body is conjured, and her spirit is...how to explain it...a piece of my will? We are connected. She has no needs or desires of the flesh to drive her, and could not cause harm to anyone unless I ordered it of her.
[That probably sounds no better to Adrian, but it's the best way Hector can explain it to a non-practitioner. The conjured creatures are no better or worse than the puppeteer who pulls their strings.]
With such a creature, I could pursue Isaac without risking collateral damage on my part. I could try to lure him out, but he knows I will come to him if he stays, so he may refuse to rise to the bait.
[Of the two of them, Hector has never been the more clever or devious, and they both know it.]
A...what? [No, Isaac wouldn't anticipate an alliance, because it has never even occurred to Hector that he could have allies. Even when he was part of Dracula's army, he and Isaac had existed in the same space, but they had never worked together. They were both too much of loners for that.
Adrian had defeated Lord Dracula with the help of the Belmont and the Speaker, true. But the only teamwork Hector knows is between forgemaster and forged. Anyone else who would oppose Isaac would likely kill him on sight. Anyone, apparently, except Adrian.]
...no. He wouldn't... [The cost, he is willing to pay, but the idea itself is too baffling to even be possible.]
Alucard keeps listening though, and by the end of Hector's explanation, he thinks he has some understanding of the matter. The nuances? No, not so much.]
So anything at this point is only an extension of yourself, and doesn't draw from anything beyond the current material well. Have I followed that much correctly?
[He seems eager to have the understanding, at the very least. That kind of curiosity and desire for knowledge is inherited and something encouraged throughout Alucard's life. He can't help that.]
He wants the upper hand and will work to keep it that way. Anyone would do the same in the position.
[Alucard remains quiet stern faced at Hector's reaction. It wasn't a true offer, if only because he knows how it'll end.]
As I said. It isn't a true offer I can extend, unless you're keen to perish afterwards. My actual point is that from all you've said, Isaac does not view you as a strategist. Playing on that assumption and disproving it may very well be the key to ending this situation once and for all.
[Hector should probably just smile and nod at this point, but he doesn't have it in him to lie about his work.]
They do have some abilities beyond my capabilities. It comes from the nature of their conjured matter, I believe. The fairy can see things that are hidden from mortal sight, and is capable of minor healing. In time, we might unlock other abilities in her, though she lacks the capacity to use them without my will. Her existence is tethered to mine...like a tool that only I can pick up and use.
[Beneath the grief and resignation, there's still a hint of his old pride in his work. The fairy is an innovation he long dreamed of, but was never able to execute during his forging. Now, he can't give her the recognition she deserves.
Sensing a shift in her master's mood, she finally abandons the wall and flies over to take a seat on his shoulder.]
It doesn't matter if I walk away from it, so long as Isaac is stopped. I'm not a strategist, but I'll keep what you say in mind, and if I can find a way to turn the tides in my favor, I will.
[Really, Hector has much more faith in himself as a craftsman than he does as a tactician. He can't outwit Isaac, but he can out-forge him, given the right tools. And if he falls, he assumes he will at least have weakened Isaac's defenses enough that Adrian's acquaintances could finish the job.]
I'm sure there are books here that can offer additional theory on conjured matter, although I don't recall it being one of his particular fields of interest. [Alucard breathes out in one long, slow breath. He doesn't like any of this, not one bit.] Is she the first construct you've made in this way, or are there other assistants that are not visible?
[How many tools in the tool box, so to speak.
There's something else familiar in Hector's words, the one about walking away from it that Alucard knows. These kinds of deaths, it seem, bring around nothing but a desire for one's own death in the end, and it's all brought about by love. Learning to be without is the challenge, and...
...now isn't the time for musing on past and future. There's only the present.
And realizing Hector's missed the point. Alucard's face falls, and he looks mildly annoyed all things considered.]
That was an offer to help you plan strategically, Hector.
[Hector shrugs. The sandwich is gone somehow, though he doesn’t remember eating it. Apparently he was hungry.] There might be books, if you can find them and read them. I’ve always just learned by doing.
[He drums his fingers on the table absently.] I made a simple construct to watch over Cesar and the others. They draw their energy from mine, so there’s a limit to how many I can construct.
[With Alucard’s clarification, his eyes go wide.] Oh.
[When it comes to forming creatures out of things that are no longer or never had been alive, Hector is competent, maybe even a genius. In every other aspect, he’s a hopeless idiot.]
No, Isaac wouldn’t see that coming. [Which may be the understatement of the century.]
My command of the libraries here is extensive, but not exacting, unfortunately. [Which isn't a lie. Alucard's good, but Dracula never kept an index and there are still books in disarray. What he can and cannot provide right now is a bit of a guessing game.
Alucard takes back the plate, walking it over the sink while Hector considers everything.]
I could take over their care again, if you wanted to recoup the energy from the construct itself. I'm unsure how useful that would be though, considering that this time frame is a question and I can't say how far away your friends are.
[That's the right term, isn't it? They're as close to friends as Hector has these days.]
Good. Then that is a solid place to start. What kind of terrain suits him and his reconstructed dead best?
[Sitting, eating, talking about forging theory...it’s a sorely needed distraction from his grief. A ghost of a smile crosses his face.]
Still trying to steal my dog.... [He’s kept his home secret for six years, but there’s really no point any longer. He names the village.] It is too far to collect them now, but if I can’t return there when this is finished, you’ll know where they can be found.
[Between Isaac and the Belmont, it’s a very real possibility that he won’t make it back, and the golem he left to watch his friends won’t outlive him. They could do far worse that Adrian as a new protector.
He thinks on Isaac’s creatures and fighting style. Maybe he can get the hang of this strategizing thing, rather than rushing in with no plan whatsoever.]
His strongest night creatures, he makes with wings. You, um, might have encountered some of them. When we sparred, he would leap and attack from above and behind whenever he could. He’ll want to fight somewhere open, where such maneuvers won’t be hindered.
A long term borrow. [It's a correction that maybe in any other discussion, would come off as light hearted. Right now, it's a sober statement, one that seems very much aware that this is a fight Hector's not likely to walk away from. Alucard nods once in acknowledgement of the verbal will.] They'll be in caring hands.
[That much is a true statement. The things may live as long as Alucard, unless something happens to cause a break down before that. He doesn't voice that particular thought out loud though, it isn't the time or place. Besides, Alucard has never liked gallows humor anyway.
Wings. That's a start, and Alucard huffs softly.]
Yes, I believe they ambushed us on the road here once. Only one returned to the castle's location at the time, if my memory serves correctly.
If that is the case then, he'll expect you to stick to covered areas, and if anything, find a way to use that terrain as an advantage. Flying means bringing things down upon people's heads, and a forest has high branches. So you'd want to stick to open areas in order to give the illusion that you've no cunning in this fight.
[His friends would like that, returning to the castle to live out the rest of their lives with one, like themselves, who will not age and wither away.]
That won't be hard. I'll need to be out searching for his trail. He expects me to react to him, not to act on my own.
[It's what he's always done.]
Isaac was born in the desert, though he traveled before Dracula called upon his service. I could not tell you how he'd fare in water, but I do know I've never seen him forge anything aquatic. I've...dabbled. I studied the anatomy of everything I've been able to get my hands on, and I grew up on an island. Ocean creatures were in no short supply.
So perhaps water is to one's advantage. There's the Danube to the south, and the Black Sea to the east, although I cannot advise anything regarding human habitation in either area. I've...seen little of the world, for reasons you have probably already guessed.
[Being here, watching over it all, it isn't possible to follow his father's path of traveling. That has always ached in Alucard's heart, because there was so much more beyond Wallachia. He's never said a word about it though, not even to Trevor and Sypha.]
Constructs can hide in the water, for example, and perhaps might have a fairly high reach all things considered. I'd leave that to your best judgement. The presence of a wide ocean or stretch along the river would probably appeal to Isaac's sensibilities, based on what you've said.
[Hector nods. It might work. He could have his innocent devils lie beneath the water in ambush, if he could lure Isaac to the place of his choosing.]
I don't suppose there's still a forge in the castle. [He highly doubts it, but no harm in asking.]
And you know...if you can't leave the castle, make the castle move again. Then you can see the world, instead of sulking here. [He's a pot calling the kettle black, but Adrian has taken brooding to a new level. Case in point, it's been seven years and the dhampir still apparently hasn't gotten himself a damned dog.
Silver lining, at least if Hector's plan goes awry and he dies, it will get Alucard out of the house for a bit while he fetches Cesar and company.]
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Is he here? I will hunt him down and have my revenge of him.
[He's shaking with anger, amplified by the fatigue of traveling with barely a thought of rest.]
He has to be here. There's nowhere else he'd choose, that over-dramatic bastard. Move aside!
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His tone is firm and sober, hoping the same qualities might transfer to Hector and his bullheadedness.]
There is no one here aside from myself, Hector. There has been no one here beside myself for the past week.
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That doesn't make sense. Everything he's done has been in parallel.
[He can't think of a reason Adrian would lie about this, though to be honest, he can barely think at all.]
He wants me to find him. He said I was too weak and pathetic as I was, and that I had to regain my powers so I could face him.
[He clenches his fists. Dracula had given the Wallachians a year before he launched his attack. Did Isaac think to elude him for the same interval?]
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[Alucard's in no mood to yell aross the threshold of his own home, and so he steps forward to approach Hector properly. He would be a liar if he said he wasn't also taking advantage of the movement to see if Hector has been followed by certain friends that Alucard likes much, much more than Hector himself, but asking after pets is not the correct thing to do right now.
His frown is clear though, as is the tension in Alucard's frame.]
Care to clarify?
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Hector looks Adrian over. The sight of him, almost entirely unchanged, brings back memories of the times of his life better left forgotten. He looks away.]
After I left, I gave up forging. I ran until I was certain I’d buried any trail the demons of my past could follow, and I slunk away to a backwater village no one had ever heard of to spend the rest of my life in seclusion.
Then I met Rosaly. [Speaking her name twists the dagger in his gut another turn. He feels her absence viscerally, as if he’s been carved up and every vital part of him removed.
His voice comes out in a growl.] I don’t know...if Isaac took this long to find me...or if he knew all along, and was just waiting...letting me find true happiness just so he could rip it away.
[His voice breaks. His anger is the only pillar left within him, keeping him from total collapse. He has to hold on to it.]
He told the villagers she was a witch. Rosaly spent every day of her life caring for their wounds, curing their fevers, loving them beyond what any person could deserve...and they burned her.
[There had been nothing left but ash. Isaac has seen to it. No flesh or bones left that Hector could have revived even at the height of his power.]
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At that, Alucard's features become harder set. He knows the little bubble of anger that begins to rise in his stomach. He's had it every time some new horrible rumor of a witch execution passes by through the Speakers or when Trevor and Sypha return home. There is some church man, the Speakers say, who wants to write a book about detecting witches. That the title might be Malleus Maleficarum, and Alucard hates it.
His mother's death wasn't one man's attempt at gaining power in the church. It was a herald of things to come. Hector's words only confirm it.]
I understand the devestation of that kind of loss.
[After all, what had brought Hector to this castle in the first place? And is Hector not weathering that grief better than Dracula, by focusing on only one man rather than the world?
Those are thoughts to unpack later.]
I do not know the man, beyond the fact he is why Carmilla never made to these doors. I cannot say what his intentions are. [Alucard sighs. He can't believe the words that come out of his own mouth.]
Come in then. There's little to be gained from discussing this where a passing breeze can overhear.
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He nods. Not knowing where to pursue Isaac, he’s directionless. Having anyone, even the dhampir, tell him where to go is a relief. When they are safely within the walls, he can speak further on Isaac.]
Isaac loved Dracula, fanatically. He wants everyone who had a hand in his fall destroyed. He’ll turn his sights to you and your hunters in time, if I don’t stop him. He’s smart, and patient, and nothing is sacred to him.
[He draws his hammer, the one that he’d abandoned at Carmilla’s keep, and that Isaac had dropped at his feet as he told Hector what he’d done.]
He said he couldn’t be bothered to kill me until I regained my strength. It’s all a sick game to him.
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If I was a creature of hubris, I might say something about what my father's defeat required. But I refuse to invite ruin upon this house by tempting the fates, and you have a far stronger measure of the man than I ever will.
[Alucard's words don't echo in the main hall, which has been set to rights. Oh, there are still scars of battle on the floor and along the walls, but anything well and truly destroyed has long since been replaced. Alucard keeps walking, past the grand staircase and off to the side, staring down a corridor.]
It may be a game, but it is also vengence for an idealized version of a man. [The Dracula of legend. Not the one who spent twenty years living a life as ordinary as anyone else's.]
I have no interest in defending anything but this home and my... [nope don't say anything kind of relationshippy, that's just rude Alucard] those who share this place with me. So answer me this: is he inclined to come for the three of us and save you for last, or vice versa?
[Alucard's debated how to address the hammer being out. He doesn't like it, not one bit.] Please keep that thing closer to the ground unless absolutely required.
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I believe his focus is on me, for now. He didn't pursue me until he'd routed the vampire generals. It will likely be the same before he turns his sights to the Belmont or you.
[He follows where Alucard leads, having no clue where he is being taken. Any knowledge he had of the castle in the past, he counts as completely unreliable now.]
When I talked theory with your father when he sought me out near Rhodes, he mentioned a type of crystal he'd discovered that he thought could enhance my work. He was cultivating them in the catacombs during the campaign, but we never had the chance to test them. They could still be there.
[Isaac isn't here, but at least if he can get his hands on them, this trip will not have been wasted.]
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Not that there were many remaining. [They're words that Alucard murmurs darkly. Almost all of them were caught up in the madness of himself, Trevor, and Sypha storming the castle. He had only realized some fled months after, as he began to clean the castle.]
Singular in purpose. I suppose that would fit, based on what you've said so far.
[As it turns out, Alucard is going to the kitchens. They are a part of a newer section of the castle, built after his mother first arrived. What did Dracula need a kitchen for before he had a human living there?
It's a spacious room, with a large hearth sat along the outer wall, and a length of wood counters running alongside the perimeter. One of Dracula's inventions, a cast iron stove with two burners, sits not too far from the fireplace, and the rest of the room is lined with cabinets. Another work bench dominates the center of the room, and towards one end of it is a set of three stools. Alucard gestures Hector towards them.]
You will need to give me more details on what they are supposed to do. Even I don't know all the secrets of this place.
[This is in fact bullshit. Alucard ran into them while cleaning, but their purpose was not obvious at the time. Now that he knows, there's no small amount of hesitancy with the thought of handing them over to Hector.]
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It feels strange to sit down in the kitchen like he's an old friend come 'round for tea, but Hector sits, obedient while Adrian stands between him and the materials he needs.]
He'll have taken notes on them, at least on the theory. [Dracula had been meticulous when Hector had met him, though he'd changed much after the loss of his wife. He honestly had no idea whether Dracula had kept up with any of his research past that point.]
What I made before was born of necromancy, and the things that were not pure reanimation, were possessed with spirits of hell. I won't make such things again.
[Won't, not can't. Rosaly would not want him to fall back on his past sins.]
I know I can make something else, with the right materials. A creature of conjuration, something neither good nor evil, who would harm no one unless I will it so.
[He gestures to the fairy, who has flitted off to hover beside a wall where, before Dracula's long-ago renovations, must have held a door. She points at it, delighting in revealing what she thinks to be a secret path.]
She is proof it can be done. She's weak, made purely from inorganic matter and my magic, but with the power from the crystals, I could make a real weapon that could see Isaac put into a grave.
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I'm bound to this place, that much is correct.
[He's already scared off mobs. What's one more person with an army of forged creatures? The only problem is if they blaze a war path en route, but that is a discussion to be had with Trevor.]
Quite a few books were not...they weren't destroyed, but the pages were sent everywhere, and the combination of matching pages up to their original text and then rebinding them is a lifetime of work in and of itself. It impacted his research journals, the general collection, my mother's work....everything.
[Which isn't a lie in the slightest. Alucard's picked up book binding as a matter of requirement, and he does it when sleep comes poorly to him.]
Conjuration is a different school of magic all together, is it not? [That's really a Sypha level question, isn't it?
But when Hector gestures at the fairy, he leaves the bread and knife be and walks over, trying to get a better sense of the creature.]
Do you really need to forge something entirely unique? Isaac is a man, just as any other.
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I am sorry to hear it. [Those pages would be relics of the times before the Lady Lisa's death, and likely invaluable to the dhampir.]
It's a different application of the same theory. Devil forging uses elements of conjuring and necromancy, among other things. [It's one of the reasons it is so rare a talent, because of the delicate blending of various magics.
The fairy preens under the attention, flitting around to show off her wings, but ultimately always returning to the spot on the wall that she's decided is interesting. She's a spirit of minor healing and major curiosity, and Hector has relied on her to help find shortcuts to the castle.]
Isaac is stronger than I am. I could try to build an army of night creatures to match his, but...I wouldn't be able to control them. They would leave a wake of destruction in their stead, and I won't do that again. I swore to her I wouldn't.
The one thing Isaac could never rival me in is innovation. He makes things that kill, and do it well, but he has no spark of creativity beyond that. If I create something he can't anticipate, I'll have the edge I need to finish him.
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It'll be completed, in time.
[Alucard watches the fairy while Hector explains. His knowledge of magic is no where near that of say, Sypha. It never will be. But he can follow it all well enough, and what Hector has explained leaves a very sour taste in his mouth.]
So it takes the general framework of one and overlays it on the other? I want to be sure I'm understanding this correctly.
[Trevor is probably the better person to make this judgement call, although Alucard knows that the answer would be to tell Hector to go fuck himself and simply take over the matter of Isaac once and for all. Which is probably the best solution, all things considered.
Satisfied with inspecting the fairy, Alucard returns to his original task. The bread's sliced, and he reaches down under the cabinet opening a small cooling chest. There's leftover venison in there from last night's meal, and he puts a few thin slices of it over the bread. All of that goes onto the plate, and that's brought over to Hector.]
One thing you'd need to do, in order to not break that promise, is bait him into a place of final confrontation. That's more strategic than anything else, but something to bear in mind as you keep that promise.
[Alucard recognizes the desire for fidelity to the dead. God does he ever.]
I would joke about if he would expect alliance, but when all is said and done, I couldn't promise your own safety after that. [Alucard knows the company he keeps, after all.] But is it only creation that he won't be able to anticipate?
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It's hard to explain. Before, the creatures I made for Dracula's army were flesh from this world combined with spirits from beyond- necromancy, conjuration, binding. The components colored the end results, and they ended up with dark hungers. The fairy is composed with no such parts to taint her. Her body is conjured, and her spirit is...how to explain it...a piece of my will? We are connected. She has no needs or desires of the flesh to drive her, and could not cause harm to anyone unless I ordered it of her.
[That probably sounds no better to Adrian, but it's the best way Hector can explain it to a non-practitioner. The conjured creatures are no better or worse than the puppeteer who pulls their strings.]
With such a creature, I could pursue Isaac without risking collateral damage on my part. I could try to lure him out, but he knows I will come to him if he stays, so he may refuse to rise to the bait.
[Of the two of them, Hector has never been the more clever or devious, and they both know it.]
A...what? [No, Isaac wouldn't anticipate an alliance, because it has never even occurred to Hector that he could have allies. Even when he was part of Dracula's army, he and Isaac had existed in the same space, but they had never worked together. They were both too much of loners for that.
Adrian had defeated Lord Dracula with the help of the Belmont and the Speaker, true. But the only teamwork Hector knows is between forgemaster and forged. Anyone else who would oppose Isaac would likely kill him on sight. Anyone, apparently, except Adrian.]
...no. He wouldn't... [The cost, he is willing to pay, but the idea itself is too baffling to even be possible.]
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Alucard keeps listening though, and by the end of Hector's explanation, he thinks he has some understanding of the matter. The nuances? No, not so much.]
So anything at this point is only an extension of yourself, and doesn't draw from anything beyond the current material well. Have I followed that much correctly?
[He seems eager to have the understanding, at the very least. That kind of curiosity and desire for knowledge is inherited and something encouraged throughout Alucard's life. He can't help that.]
He wants the upper hand and will work to keep it that way. Anyone would do the same in the position.
[Alucard remains quiet stern faced at Hector's reaction. It wasn't a true offer, if only because he knows how it'll end.]
As I said. It isn't a true offer I can extend, unless you're keen to perish afterwards. My actual point is that from all you've said, Isaac does not view you as a strategist. Playing on that assumption and disproving it may very well be the key to ending this situation once and for all.
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They do have some abilities beyond my capabilities. It comes from the nature of their conjured matter, I believe. The fairy can see things that are hidden from mortal sight, and is capable of minor healing. In time, we might unlock other abilities in her, though she lacks the capacity to use them without my will. Her existence is tethered to mine...like a tool that only I can pick up and use.
[Beneath the grief and resignation, there's still a hint of his old pride in his work. The fairy is an innovation he long dreamed of, but was never able to execute during his forging. Now, he can't give her the recognition she deserves.
Sensing a shift in her master's mood, she finally abandons the wall and flies over to take a seat on his shoulder.]
It doesn't matter if I walk away from it, so long as Isaac is stopped. I'm not a strategist, but I'll keep what you say in mind, and if I can find a way to turn the tides in my favor, I will.
[Really, Hector has much more faith in himself as a craftsman than he does as a tactician. He can't outwit Isaac, but he can out-forge him, given the right tools. And if he falls, he assumes he will at least have weakened Isaac's defenses enough that Adrian's acquaintances could finish the job.]
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[How many tools in the tool box, so to speak.
There's something else familiar in Hector's words, the one about walking away from it that Alucard knows. These kinds of deaths, it seem, bring around nothing but a desire for one's own death in the end, and it's all brought about by love. Learning to be without is the challenge, and...
...now isn't the time for musing on past and future. There's only the present.
And realizing Hector's missed the point. Alucard's face falls, and he looks mildly annoyed all things considered.]
That was an offer to help you plan strategically, Hector.
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[He drums his fingers on the table absently.] I made a simple construct to watch over Cesar and the others. They draw their energy from mine, so there’s a limit to how many I can construct.
[With Alucard’s clarification, his eyes go wide.] Oh.
[When it comes to forming creatures out of things that are no longer or never had been alive, Hector is competent, maybe even a genius. In every other aspect, he’s a hopeless idiot.]
No, Isaac wouldn’t see that coming. [Which may be the understatement of the century.]
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Alucard takes back the plate, walking it over the sink while Hector considers everything.]
I could take over their care again, if you wanted to recoup the energy from the construct itself. I'm unsure how useful that would be though, considering that this time frame is a question and I can't say how far away your friends are.
[That's the right term, isn't it? They're as close to friends as Hector has these days.]
Good. Then that is a solid place to start. What kind of terrain suits him and his reconstructed dead best?
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Still trying to steal my dog.... [He’s kept his home secret for six years, but there’s really no point any longer. He names the village.] It is too far to collect them now, but if I can’t return there when this is finished, you’ll know where they can be found.
[Between Isaac and the Belmont, it’s a very real possibility that he won’t make it back, and the golem he left to watch his friends won’t outlive him. They could do far worse that Adrian as a new protector.
He thinks on Isaac’s creatures and fighting style. Maybe he can get the hang of this strategizing thing, rather than rushing in with no plan whatsoever.]
His strongest night creatures, he makes with wings. You, um, might have encountered some of them. When we sparred, he would leap and attack from above and behind whenever he could. He’ll want to fight somewhere open, where such maneuvers won’t be hindered.
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[That much is a true statement. The things may live as long as Alucard, unless something happens to cause a break down before that. He doesn't voice that particular thought out loud though, it isn't the time or place. Besides, Alucard has never liked gallows humor anyway.
Wings. That's a start, and Alucard huffs softly.]
Yes, I believe they ambushed us on the road here once. Only one returned to the castle's location at the time, if my memory serves correctly.
If that is the case then, he'll expect you to stick to covered areas, and if anything, find a way to use that terrain as an advantage. Flying means bringing things down upon people's heads, and a forest has high branches. So you'd want to stick to open areas in order to give the illusion that you've no cunning in this fight.
How were either of you with water?
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That won't be hard. I'll need to be out searching for his trail. He expects me to react to him, not to act on my own.
[It's what he's always done.]
Isaac was born in the desert, though he traveled before Dracula called upon his service. I could not tell you how he'd fare in water, but I do know I've never seen him forge anything aquatic. I've...dabbled. I studied the anatomy of everything I've been able to get my hands on, and I grew up on an island. Ocean creatures were in no short supply.
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[Being here, watching over it all, it isn't possible to follow his father's path of traveling. That has always ached in Alucard's heart, because there was so much more beyond Wallachia. He's never said a word about it though, not even to Trevor and Sypha.]
Constructs can hide in the water, for example, and perhaps might have a fairly high reach all things considered. I'd leave that to your best judgement. The presence of a wide ocean or stretch along the river would probably appeal to Isaac's sensibilities, based on what you've said.
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I don't suppose there's still a forge in the castle. [He highly doubts it, but no harm in asking.]
And you know...if you can't leave the castle, make the castle move again. Then you can see the world, instead of sulking here. [He's a pot calling the kettle black, but Adrian has taken brooding to a new level. Case in point, it's been seven years and the dhampir still apparently hasn't gotten himself a damned dog.
Silver lining, at least if Hector's plan goes awry and he dies, it will get Alucard out of the house for a bit while he fetches Cesar and company.]
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hector's a dirty rotten kill-stealer and i'm so sorry
DO NOT BE alucard's 200% fine with not having to do another murder
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