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.]
There is not. Those rooms were cleared out fairly early on in the process.
[There was a therapy in cleaning the castle room by room. It allowed for a confrontation of the past at every new point, and scrubbing away the worst parts of what transpired helped to make the place feel like home again. Where Alucard grew up. Where Trevor and Sypha could come back to and feel welcome, rather than the weight of Dracula's horrible demon castle that claimed the lives of so many of Trevor's ancestors.
To the comment about the castle's movement, there's a softer, more contemplative look to Alucard's face. Then a short, sharp noise that might be a laugh under a better topic of conversation.]
We've been trying to make that happen again. It's...[he shakes his head slowly.] We'll get there, in time. But not right now. Your news means we have a new priority.
[Hector doesn't miss the 'we's. That's good, if only because it means Adrian won't have been driven mad with loneliness and go off to steal his dogs at the first opportunity. Long term borrow, his ass.]
I'll make do without it, then. Your getting this castle mobile might still be the best place for you to focus. Hard to Isaac to lay siege to what he can't pin down. And if there's...
...[He has to force himself to say it.]
If there are any remains in the castle, you have to keep them from him. [There is nothing Isaac would stop at to see Dracula returned.]
It may very well be decades off. The only comfort in if it is mobile again, I don't believe Isaac is the man who could figure out the complex spellwork and level of will to pin it down a second time.
[Hector's next few words cause Alucard to go entirely still. The little color that he has in his face is gone. There's hardly any breath that comes out of him, and for a moment that feels much longer, Alucard closes his eyes. It doesn't help him process the horror of the information, but it at least shows how seriously he's taken the warning.
[Complex spells and will. No, it’s not the type of magic Isaac and Hector work with.]
It’s a shame the castle’s not alive in a way you could just ask it what needs to be done. [A surprising amount of necromancy is asking a broken thing if it wants to be alive again- most things do- and then giving it a body that it believes could function again. Hector’s never had a head for the layers of rituals and tedious chanting that seem to go hand in hand with enchanting objects.
Hector looks away, gives Adrian as much privacy as he can without leaving the kitchen. The ring...a fitting memento, but likely not an easy one for his son to possess.]
Nothing evil could be made from that. If there’s any fragment of spirit attached to it, it...wouldn’t be the piece Isaac is after.
[Hector is terrible at comforting anything that doesn’t walk around on four legs, but he can at least offer that tiny bit of reassurance.]
The magic used for it isn't....no. Life would be much easier if that was the kind of magic laid in it's foundations.
[Alucard knows that the research into how the castle moved in the first place is slow going. What his father wrote down was minimal, and it makes perfect sense that that's the case. The castle was an extension of himself in all ways. Why would he ever need to write down what he knew. He wasn't going to share any of it, until Lisa of Lupu arrived at the door.
There's a long, sobering sigh from Alucard as the discussion returns to his father's remains. There's so much horror wrapped in the thought, but in it...
...there. An idea.]
Perhaps that's the key to baiting him though. He doesn't know that there aren't any remains, and he'll doubtlessly know that you were here for a time.
[Hector tries to imagine Isaac's reaction to the news of Dracula's body surviving.]
If he could be convinced, his eagerness could make him careless. He isn't the type to jump at unfounded rumors, though. And... if we do lay that bait, he won't be the only one to scent it. It would invite other would-be servants and sycophants to seek them out, hoping to revive their dark lord.
[Hector will pay any price within his power for revenge against Isaac, but he won't ask Adrian to bear such a cost. Finding Hector without Dracula's remains, they would turn their search to the castle before long.]
[Anyone foolish enough to look at his father's madness and see it as a boon rather than the horrible outpouring of grief it was deserves nothing less, as far as Alucard's concerned. He knows where the ring is at all times (it is around his neck), and as long as that is the case, then any true attempts at revival ought to fail.
But it'd be too sloppy to actually allow for such a thing to come to pass.]
That is a secondary matter. Let us return focus on the matter of Isaac. As willingly as I'd give you a jar from this house to claim it an urn, there could be other routes as well.
How much would it take to convince him though, do you believe?
I don't know. [Hector rubs his hands over his face. Now that he's sat and eaten, his body is remembering how tired it is. He pushes past it.]
He's always been clever, and I doubt the past years have made him less wary. It would need to be done carefully. If I was seen leaving the castle with the urn, and I did not immediately begin to pursue Isaac's trail...
[What would be the steps he would take, if he were actually conducting the revival? He traces a finger along the table, as if looking at an invisible map.]
Turn my feet toward somewhere where I could forge without interruption, gather up the material components....
[He begins to see the snags.] Just ash and bone wouldn't be enough. It would take other components...[no, call them what they are]...corpses...and he would take notice that I wasn't collecting them. Besides, I don't know if he'd believe you'd relinquish your father's remains to me, nor that I'd stolen them and come out of it completely unscathed.
[It feels hopeless, and he lets out a long sigh.] He knows me a traitor...maybe if he thought I was taking them hide them away from him, rather than to use for my own designs. He might intervene then.
Let's sieze upon that last part first: take them away and keep them away. [It's simple, and would make the man angry. Perhaps no less clever and paranoid, but it is a place to build.]
That would allow for a certain need to move, out and away, both from Isaac and from the rest of civilization, in order to protect the so-called remains from anyone with similar designs. [The last two words are said with an underlying darkness and disgust. Alucard really, really could have lived without this information. Or fear, if he is to be honest with himself.]
So that also means away from graveyards and places of execution, in order to avoid what would be required for the work. As for the success of theft, that's what magic is for. It'd be easy enough to make it appear that you left this place after a struggle.
But you would need to be pursued in order to have the whole thing work. Which would also be a form of insurance against Isaac's life continuing should this ruse fail.
I could make a break for Bralia, to find passage on a boat to put running water between myself and my pursuers.
[He’d hoped never to see the place again, but fate is often ironic and rarely kind.]
Before I came to Wallachia, I lived on an island off of Rhodes. If I’m not ambushed on route, it could serve as the ground to lay the snare.
[It was a quiet place with few human inhabitants, which had been why Hector had settled there in the first place.]
I’ll trust the magic to you, but for the rest.... [Alucard, from what he knows of him, does not leave the castle, and he assumes that if the Belmont was around, Hector would not be sitting peacefully in Adrian’s kitchen.]
Who would you send after me? Did any of the night creatures return here to serve you? [A small portion of himself is oddly hopeful. Monstrosities though they are, he can’t help feel a little fond for the memory of the things he created. A larger portion is just hoping it’s not the Belmont Adrian has in mind. Hector needs to live long enough to kill Isaac.]
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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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[There was a therapy in cleaning the castle room by room. It allowed for a confrontation of the past at every new point, and scrubbing away the worst parts of what transpired helped to make the place feel like home again. Where Alucard grew up. Where Trevor and Sypha could come back to and feel welcome, rather than the weight of Dracula's horrible demon castle that claimed the lives of so many of Trevor's ancestors.
To the comment about the castle's movement, there's a softer, more contemplative look to Alucard's face. Then a short, sharp noise that might be a laugh under a better topic of conversation.]
We've been trying to make that happen again. It's...[he shakes his head slowly.] We'll get there, in time. But not right now. Your news means we have a new priority.
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I'll make do without it, then. Your getting this castle mobile might still be the best place for you to focus. Hard to Isaac to lay siege to what he can't pin down. And if there's...
...[He has to force himself to say it.]
If there are any remains in the castle, you have to keep them from him. [There is nothing Isaac would stop at to see Dracula returned.]
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It may very well be decades off. The only comfort in if it is mobile again, I don't believe Isaac is the man who could figure out the complex spellwork and level of will to pin it down a second time.
[Hector's next few words cause Alucard to go entirely still. The little color that he has in his face is gone. There's hardly any breath that comes out of him, and for a moment that feels much longer, Alucard closes his eyes. It doesn't help him process the horror of the information, but it at least shows how seriously he's taken the warning.
His next few words are barely audible.]
There was only his wedding ring.
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It’s a shame the castle’s not alive in a way you could just ask it what needs to be done. [A surprising amount of necromancy is asking a broken thing if it wants to be alive again- most things do- and then giving it a body that it believes could function again. Hector’s never had a head for the layers of rituals and tedious chanting that seem to go hand in hand with enchanting objects.
Hector looks away, gives Adrian as much privacy as he can without leaving the kitchen. The ring...a fitting memento, but likely not an easy one for his son to possess.]
Nothing evil could be made from that. If there’s any fragment of spirit attached to it, it...wouldn’t be the piece Isaac is after.
[Hector is terrible at comforting anything that doesn’t walk around on four legs, but he can at least offer that tiny bit of reassurance.]
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[Alucard knows that the research into how the castle moved in the first place is slow going. What his father wrote down was minimal, and it makes perfect sense that that's the case. The castle was an extension of himself in all ways. Why would he ever need to write down what he knew. He wasn't going to share any of it, until Lisa of Lupu arrived at the door.
There's a long, sobering sigh from Alucard as the discussion returns to his father's remains. There's so much horror wrapped in the thought, but in it...
...there. An idea.]
Perhaps that's the key to baiting him though. He doesn't know that there aren't any remains, and he'll doubtlessly know that you were here for a time.
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If he could be convinced, his eagerness could make him careless. He isn't the type to jump at unfounded rumors, though. And... if we do lay that bait, he won't be the only one to scent it. It would invite other would-be servants and sycophants to seek them out, hoping to revive their dark lord.
[Hector will pay any price within his power for revenge against Isaac, but he won't ask Adrian to bear such a cost. Finding Hector without Dracula's remains, they would turn their search to the castle before long.]
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[Anyone foolish enough to look at his father's madness and see it as a boon rather than the horrible outpouring of grief it was deserves nothing less, as far as Alucard's concerned. He knows where the ring is at all times (it is around his neck), and as long as that is the case, then any true attempts at revival ought to fail.
But it'd be too sloppy to actually allow for such a thing to come to pass.]
That is a secondary matter. Let us return focus on the matter of Isaac. As willingly as I'd give you a jar from this house to claim it an urn, there could be other routes as well.
How much would it take to convince him though, do you believe?
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He's always been clever, and I doubt the past years have made him less wary. It would need to be done carefully. If I was seen leaving the castle with the urn, and I did not immediately begin to pursue Isaac's trail...
[What would be the steps he would take, if he were actually conducting the revival? He traces a finger along the table, as if looking at an invisible map.]
Turn my feet toward somewhere where I could forge without interruption, gather up the material components....
[He begins to see the snags.] Just ash and bone wouldn't be enough. It would take other components...[no, call them what they are]...corpses...and he would take notice that I wasn't collecting them. Besides, I don't know if he'd believe you'd relinquish your father's remains to me, nor that I'd stolen them and come out of it completely unscathed.
[It feels hopeless, and he lets out a long sigh.] He knows me a traitor...maybe if he thought I was taking them hide them away from him, rather than to use for my own designs. He might intervene then.
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That would allow for a certain need to move, out and away, both from Isaac and from the rest of civilization, in order to protect the so-called remains from anyone with similar designs. [The last two words are said with an underlying darkness and disgust. Alucard really, really could have lived without this information. Or fear, if he is to be honest with himself.]
So that also means away from graveyards and places of execution, in order to avoid what would be required for the work. As for the success of theft, that's what magic is for. It'd be easy enough to make it appear that you left this place after a struggle.
[At that, Alucard pauses, realizing something else.]
But you would need to be pursued in order to have the whole thing work. Which would also be a form of insurance against Isaac's life continuing should this ruse fail.
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[He’d hoped never to see the place again, but fate is often ironic and rarely kind.]
Before I came to Wallachia, I lived on an island off of Rhodes. If I’m not ambushed on route, it could serve as the ground to lay the snare.
[It was a quiet place with few human inhabitants, which had been why Hector had settled there in the first place.]
I’ll trust the magic to you, but for the rest.... [Alucard, from what he knows of him, does not leave the castle, and he assumes that if the Belmont was around, Hector would not be sitting peacefully in Adrian’s kitchen.]
Who would you send after me? Did any of the night creatures return here to serve you? [A small portion of himself is oddly hopeful. Monstrosities though they are, he can’t help feel a little fond for the memory of the things he created. A larger portion is just hoping it’s not the Belmont Adrian has in mind. Hector needs to live long enough to kill Isaac.]
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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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