Catch All

[cryptsleeper]

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[miraclewhip]

[ There is a silence, at that. Trevor looks up just for a moment, eyes not quite focusing on Alucard properly, and then lowers his gaze again. The merchant finds his voice again quickly. ]

My assistant is not for sale, sir. Not even to a man such as your master. I trade in thoughts, not in living things. [ He absolutely trades in living things. But he does, at present, have the good sense to not advertise that to Dracula. He has not taken kindly to slavers in the past. ] Even if I did, I would be trading away my entire livelihood. I can hardly be a Silk Merchant without a weaver, can I?

[ Or, more pertinently, a trader of secrets without a fairy to pull them out of people's skulls. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard draws himself up just a little bit more, channeling every inch of his father he can. He knows what Dracula at his most imposing looks like, and to put it into action is...he looms is what he does, casting a shadow even in low light.]

I thought I was dealing with an all too clever man of means who could find any sort of magical solution to mundane problem. Surely you don't mean to imply all of your wealth comes from investing in a single man.

[Cold, gold eyes meet that of the Merchant's, daring contradiction.]

There are plenty of ways to manufacture bolts of silk, after all.

[miraclewhip]

You are dealing with a man of means who came about those means through one very sound investment.

[ His eyes narrow. He straightens the papers, placing them in an envelope for Alucard. ]

You will pay me, and you will leave. Your patron's business is appreciated.

[cryptsleeper]

(He has hit a nerve. Good. Telling. But alucard won't dare do more than that right now. He places a small, black coin purse down atop the envelope, and his eyes meet that of the merchant's.)

Please, count it all out.

(It is time to thunk.)

[miraclewhip]

[ He counts carefully, not taking his eyes from Alucard. As he does, Trevor gathers up the envelope. The Merchant nods eventually. ]

Give the man his papers.

[ Trevor does, handing over the envelope. But also handing over something else with it, one of those strange patterned sheets of paper. It's soft, almost warm to the touch, and patterned almost like a large butterfly wing might be. The merchant does not seem to have noticed its absence. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard takes the envelope, and he's careful as he looks through them. The correct number of pages are there and...something else. Alucard doesn't react to the something else. He simply clutches the envelope closer to himself, and with it, he begins to walk away. Whatever that wing means, he can't be seen with it until he is a safe distance away.

And so he walks. Walks, then runs, then moves as vampires do to a safe space away from the Merchant and the horned man, and then he opens the envelope.

The wing pattern, there has to be something to it. Alucard fishes it out, unsure of what it truly might bring.]

[miraclewhip]

[ On closer examination, it's not paper but a piece of a large insect wing, roughly cut into a square. The orders from that last encounter are written on it, starting with the obvious - 'bring the printmaker's memories', 'put the memories to text' - and ending with-

-Make him forget.

Alucard was right to try to make distance. Trevor can't catch up immediately, not in his current state, but he has orders. And if his kind are good at anything, it's hunting. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard sighs heavily as he re-reads what is on the page. He could have figured this out in time, couldn't he? He's paid for a dying man's thoughts because he wanted too much, and now, well.

He spots a tree stump and he sits upon it, taking scant moments to collect himself. To refocus on Trevor, and how that situation might be rectified instead.]

[miraclewhip]

[ The moths arrive, one by one. They’re mismatched, dusty grey ones among brighter ones and big ones among small. Eventually, there are enough for them to gather together into that horned man. ]

You should forget- that. [ He says, with a voice that sounds like it gets very little use. ] I can take the memories. It won’t need to bother you.

[cryptsleeper]

[...He's a fae. That follows then, with the comments about silk. Alucard frowns at Trevor, tilting his head slightly.]

What is it that you want me to forget, exactly?

[miraclewhip]

My master asks that you forget me.

[ His master asks that. Because he personally doesn’t care that much if Alucard remembers him. He holds out a pouch - it contains the extra fifty coins that the Merchant bartered for. His kind can only take away what people trade willingly. ]

Not for free.

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard doesn't hide his confusion. He looks from Trevor to the pouch back to Trevor again, and...he doesn't understand. Not really.]

Is he so worried about how Dracula treats slavers in this land that he failed to account for the vampire seeing through my eyes the entire time?

[miraclewhip]

...Dracula can see?

[ It's the first time that emotion has entered his voice, and that emotion is fear. He doesn't remember why that terrifies him but it does. He takes a step back, just one, and then his spine straightens. He has orders. ]

Please. I can't go back until you forget.

[cryptsleeper]

If he wants.

[The emphasis is on the word if, to reassure Trevor that it wasn't the case right in this moment.]

Explain the mechanics to me. I don't know what you need forgotten or what that even ties into or... [The dhampir gestures.]

The vagueness doesn't help.

[miraclewhip]

I don't do the talking, he-

[ -isn't coming. Alucard covered a lot of distance. Trevor's managed to catch up, but the Merchant won't be able to. This is a first. Trevor doesn't do the bartering. ]

We trade. I give you something you want, and take away your memories of seeing me - just of me, you won't forget anything else of tonight. Like the inventor traded his thoughts for pain medicine.

It's painless? [ He offers as an afterthought. ]

[cryptsleeper]

The pain isn't what I'm worried about. [He hasn't even considered that so, thanks Treffy.]

Does removing my recollections serve you in any way?

[Maybe he can't confirm that fact verbally.]

[miraclewhip]

It serves my master. [ So no. ]

He will be kinder when I return, if you have forgotten me?

[ 'Kinder' is a relative term, here, more than likely. But Trevor has, if accidentally, pointed out the catch here. Any consequences for his failure will happen when he returns. He can't return unless he succeeds. ]

[cryptsleeper]

And what if you don't return?

[The question is asked so very cautiously. Unsure. Unready. But there's a thought there.]

If you're taken by your quarry?

[miraclewhip]

He will- not be kind.

[ That last part is said through gritted teeth - not quite the terror that struck him at the thought of Dracula, but close. But then there is thought. ]

-but there will be no-one for him to be unkind to.

[cryptsleeper]

There will not be. And especially not if the ties that bind are broken.

[If anyone can look at a magic bond and make determinations about it, it is Alucard's father. The dhampir is confident of that much, and so he slowly rises to his feet.]

We must travel as the undead do then. [Slowly, Alucard offers a hand.] When we enter the darkness, you musn't let go.

[miraclewhip]

[ He should go back. He has orders. He needs to trade the money for the memories, and-

-he drops the coin pouch, and takes Alucard's hand instead. Not for the promise of having his ties to the silk merchant broken. Not for any shot at freedom. Just because nobody has offered him a hand in a long, long time. ]

I mustn't let go.

[ He repeats it like a prayer. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard nods, and murmurs the right words. For the dead travel fast.

And so the dark tunnel appears, the one that lets the undead move as they please. An outpost of the netherworld, a signifier of the undead's liminal space. He can travel it in short bursts before being worn tired. For anything else, it's a true trial.

He walks in with Trevor's hand in his, immediately weighted down by the place's natural gravity. It's a sense that only intensifies the further in they go, and Alucard's eyes remain ever ahead. But he has a companion, and he knows that this is not easy.]

If you need me to stop, say so. We can exit and wait until you have energy again.

[miraclewhip]

I mustn't let go.

[ He repeats it, following. But it doesn't take long before he starts to stumble, before his footsteps become unsteady and moths begin to fall to the ground. Even he's surprised by how quickly he tires. He thought he'd recovered more than this. ]

I mustn't let go.

[ This time it sounds more shaky, more desperate, and it's accompanied by a squeeze of Alucard's hand. That would be a request to pause. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[They'll stop. They're three quarters of the way there already, and so Alucard murmurs the words that ends the tunnel.

They're in the mountains now, cold and dark but hundreds of miles from the Silk Merchant and his horrible market. A quiet breeze blows through, and on it is the scent of wild flowers. Alucard looks to Trevor, frowning.]

Sit down, you'll fall over if you don't.

[miraclewhip]

[ He does as he's told, lowering himself to sit on the ground, but doesn't let go of Alucard's hand as he does. He pokes at a moth on the ground with his free hand, but it doesn't respond. ]

Where are we going?

[ He probably should have asked that before, but Alucard offered his hand, and that was more important. ]