A/N: I managed to finish up this chapter in a few hours, and it leads into the next one, which I also finished up today and will be uploaded within a few minutes of this one. Enjoy all the new chapters. Chapter 42 hasn't been started yet, so it will take a few days to write as I have time.
Chapter 40
A Little Fool's Idea
In keeping with the schedule they had fallen into, Seras Victoria woke up shortly after lunch time on their fourth day at the seer's house, her fifth day in the United States in total. Walter had taken the morning shift to make the humans breakfast and lunch and see to running some errands outside the house. After giving a mental prod at the younger vampire to wake her up, he had retired to his coffin next to hers so she could take up a watch and later make dinner.
Seras could hear little Xander playing a board game with Valarie in the living room. It sounded like they were playing "Sorry", and a brief glance with her psychic sight confirmed it. After she made her initial security rounds, she'd probably join them in their games.
Despite the tense start they had gotten off to during their initial meetings, Seras was enjoying both of their company. Once one got past the off-putting manners of speech, Seras had discovered Valarie's taste in movies and poetry overlapped with her own quite a bit. They had ended up having quite a few fun conversations in the evening about their favorites. Valarie wasn't so busy as Seras generally was and had provided the vampire with a list of suggested media to check out when things got back to normal because they were similar. Seras needed to replace her library of books and movies as it was, so she added the recommendations to the list she was writing up.
Xander was a cute little boy to spend time with, and she could indulge in vicariously making up for part of her interrupted childhood through him. Something she felt even less guilty about indulging in after Master Alucard had told her that Pip was going to be joining them in a few days and that Miss Mercedes was one of Pip's American cousins. That had been quite the surprise, but a rather welcome one once it had processed in her mind.
To her master's questions on what she might know about the connection between the two, Seras had told him honestly that she wasn't sure. She knew that Pip's father had died when his mother was pregnant with him. His mother had moved them to the States where his father's mother had a vacation house available for them to live in without expense to the new mother, a generous monthly stipend had been granted for their other living expenses, and there had been some extended family around his age for him to grow up around. Pip had occasionally traveled back and forth during school vacations with his mother and American relatives to visit their family in Europe, and his paternal grandfather flew in to check on how well his son's wife and his grandson were being kept between his jobs. When he was a teenager, Pip had permanently joined his paternal grandfather in Europe to be groomed for becoming the Wild Geese's leader in place of his dead father. Pip didn't talk much about his family, given his line of work he tried to keep information about them as private as possible to not place them in danger, so she didn't have anything else to share.
Seras and Pip weren't ever planning on getting married, it'd be a bit pointless given the circumstances, but they were as much of a couple as they could be. Which meant that his family was kind of, sort of, her family because they were together. And a couple members of his family had ended up under their protection by this strange twist of events and circumstance. Therefore, she could excuse her antics with Xander as playing with a little cousin via her steady boyfriend that she was also trying to keep from harm. Seras knew it was a stretch of association, but she didn't have many personal connections to claim, so she didn't care.
Having picked up so quickly where Xander and Valarie were, Seras's attention turned towards the preliminary headcount of the others. That was quickly enough achieved. The boy's guardian hell hound could be sensed in the seer's room, lying quietly next to her mistress. Artemis had been spending increasing amounts of time in there.
The familiar's worry was obvious to discern the cause of. Miss Mercedes's health hadn't taken any precarious turns, but she also hadn't shown signs of being any closer to waking. The longer she stayed unconscious, the more worried all the adults in the house were becoming. No one was saying anything, they didn't want to voice those fears and perhaps bring them to life, but the thoughts were hanging in the air for those who could sense them. While the doctors had assessed this to simply be a deep sleep to recover from the trauma of her injuries and she had suffered no brain damage, comas were notoriously tricky things. Every passing day Miss Mercedes wasn't waking, there was a chance she might slip into the bad sort of coma that might mean she would never awaken.
And they couldn't stay here indefinitely, waiting on her to wake up. They really needed to move the humans to a more secure location that wasn't connected to any of them and was easier to defend. That was going to be insanely hard to accomplish if they had to try transporting Miss Mercedes while unconscious and bed ridden. They needed her to wake up, sooner rather than later.
Unlike the last few afternoons, Seras noticed her master wasn't in the bedroom and taking a nap in his coffin. And extending her psychic sight to the other rooms of the house, she didn't see him in any of those either.
That was… Peculiar. Where was Master Alucard? It's not as though he could go very far right now. Perhaps he was restless from sitting inside and had gone for another walk outside?
Seras turned her awareness further out and sensed her Master's presence radiating out from forest behind the house. He wasn't patrolling, however, he was staying in one spot. And she sensed an odd aura of emotions coming from him. His usual tempestuous mood was dampened, strained, and he almost felt… Pensive? … And then she noticed a sliver of something else. He was worried about something. Worried?!
That wasn't something the Police Girl felt from her master very often. She retracted her awareness from him before he could notice and become aggravated if he thought she was spying on him, not just doing her dutiful, passing, wake-up scans. Seras sat on top of her coffin in thought, instead of heading upstairs to greet the humans and start her patrol outside. If Master was awake and outside, there was no need for her to make such rounds.
Seras actually didn't have much to do at the moment with Master being awake, except hang out with the humans until it was time to start making dinner… Her enthusiasm to do so, however, was somewhat diminished. They didn't really need her for entertainment, they were providing their own.
Her master, on the other hand, had been acting rather irregularly over the last several days. His mood had been all over the place- sometimes easily irritable and seeming about to literally bite someone's head off, then keenly focused on some task (usually related to their security) and seeming less grumpy, then back to being irritable (and usually sequestering himself into the back bedroom), and then spending a short period of time with Xander when the child wanted Master's attention.
The abnormal fluctuations in his mood were becoming more pronounced as the days wore on. Walter didn't think it was terribly concerning, saying that Master Alucard didn't like being confined to one place and unable to undertake more actions; once the seer's magic was reversed and their master had freedom of movement and ability to take the fight to their enemies, he'd be back to normal.
Seras was sure Walter was right on some level, that seemed the obvious reason for their master's behavior… But she didn't think that was the whole cause. She had had some theories earlier about other odd bits of behavior from their master when this all started. Those theories had been brewing and shifting in her mind, partially due to the fact that she had little else to do the last four days to distract herself from those thoughts. And with Master's increasingly odd patterns behavior, and what the details of those patterns were, the former police officer was becoming more convinced of some of her theories… and more convinced that, if she was right, leaving her master to his own devices, as Walter said would be best, wasn't necessarily the right answer to this situation.
Seras gave a quiet huff, coming to a conclusion that bore a 50/50 chance of either helping or back-firing, but she couldn't just do nothing anymore and watch her master's mood potentially degrade further.
Seras silently made her way to her master, who hadn't left his stationary spot, in her shadow form. She located him, of all places, at nearly the edge of his limit of distance to the seer's ward, sitting on a fallen tree at the edge of a small clearing, staring off into the woods.
This struck the Police Girl as a further oddity because he was usually one for more posh settings that reflected his stature when he wished to retreat somewhere. The least of concerns with his choice of locale would be that the mossy, partially rotting tree he was perched on would leave remnants behind on his clothing. While it would only take a few moments to remove them, he was still rather self-conscious of his appearance outside battle and the few moments of having such a normal condition as stains on his outfit would be beneath him.
He gave no sign of acknowledging her presence, though she knew he had to be aware of it. She reformed herself about ten feet away from him, but he still said and did nothing.
"Master?" Seras asked tentatively.
Alucard continued to stare out into woods. Just as she was about to repeat herself, becoming more concerned for his odd behavior as the silence stretched on, he asked in a monotone voice, "What is it, Police Girl?"
Seras gulped, suddenly not so sure on how to proceed. After a few seconds, she said quietly, "I… I just wanted to see if you were alright."
"As you can see, I'm perfectly fine," Alucard replied, still not blinking or giving any reaction. He could have been a talking statue for all the emotion he showed.
Seras fiddled with a lock of hair nervously and took a step forward. "Well, yes, I can see you're physically fine. But you seem preoccupied or upset by something."
"I'm not upset. I do, however, have a few things I wanted silence to think on, so if you wouldn't mind…"
Seras recognized the dismissal for what it was, but she wasn't about to give up quite that easily after deciding to try intervening and helping. "Does it have something to do with the fact Miss Mercedes hasn't woken yet?"
Alucard's expression went from blank to icy as he finally turned his hellfire gaze to his servant. "And what would make you think that?"
Seras gave another nervous gulp, but she had a feeling she was on the right track, even if Walter had his own differing speculations on the matter. "I don't mean to be presumptuous, my Master, but it just seems to me that you've been very concerned with her and Xander's well-being through all this. Especially with as much of her care as you've been personally overseeing and some of your interactions with the boy. It'd be only natural to be concerned the longer she stays unconscious."
"She'll awaken when she's ready," Alucard said firmly. "She simply needs time to heal."
"That doesn't explain your behavior though."
"I don't need to explain my behavior to anyone, including you, Police Girl."
Seras frowned and took another step closer, then sat down in the grass with her legs tucked under her. She kept her gaze on her Master as she said, "No, you don't, Master. I think, however, that something about all this is bothering you personally. And as you are my Master, I am worried about you. I can't make you tell me, but, forgive me for the potential rudeness, I can say I think you bottle far too much up and it's not good for you. I'd like to know what's upsetting you."
Alucard's hellfire gaze returned to the woods. "I think it'd be best for you to return to the house, Police Girl. My psyche is not for you to analyze."
Seras huffed in frustration to his icy tone, but didn't leave as told. "I'm not trying to analyze your psyche, Master. I'm trying to watch out for you."
"I don't need you to 'watch out for' me," Alucard said with irritation lacing his voice.
Seras realized she was treading on precarious ground right now, but she had spent nearly a decade with her Master and had rarely, if ever, seen him become so pensive and brooding. She gently chewed on her lower lip as she contemplated her next move, wondering what might get some sort of proper answer out of her master. He wasn't likely to open up even a little if she tip-toed too much, nor if she pushed too hard. A surprise angle, then, might work.
"Master," Seras asked as nonchalantly as she could, "what was your first wife like?"
Alucard's blazing glare was back on her, causing the young vampire to stiffen to avoid cringing. "I strongly suggest, Police Girl, that you cease your line of interrogation immediately."
Seras again gulped nervously, her Master's tone was now deadly. And she took that as confirmation she was, in fact, on the right line of thinking. "She was like Miss Mercedes in some fashions, in personality and maybe features, wasn't she?"
"Police Girl, I will not warn you again." Thick unnatural shadows formed around the progenitor of vampires, filled with baleful eyes and snarling teeth, as he stood and glared down at his servant.
Seras's gaze darted to the shadows with no shortage of concern, but then she turned a determined gaze back up to her Master, lifting her chin defiantly. "Or what? You'll destroy me, Master? For what? For trying to find out why you're behaving so strangely and being on some level correct in my guesses? Would it really be worth killing me to avoid admitting something from your past can still touch you?"
A hound's head appeared from the shadows, snapping inches from Seras's face, causing her to jerk backwards in fear. She caught herself on one outstretched arm and glared up at her Master, who was glaring right back with tempestuous fury.
"You always tell me we have to release our pasts and not let them control us, that we must be our own Masters of our fates, but I think something in your past is still haunting you and you won't acknowledge it, to your own detriment. And I can't continue to sit quietly and wonder what that might be while you torture yourself, even if it means making you angry to ask. Just what is it that is upsetting you so much, Master? Why are you taking this entire debacle so personally? What is it about Miss Mercedes that has you so concerned? And don't tell me it doesn't concern you or that it has nothing to do with your past, because I think it truly does."
Alucard's jaw clenched and more hounds started stretching out from the shadows. Seras wondered for several terrifying seconds if she might have guessed wrong entirely and had just pushed her master too hard.
But then, to her equal surprise and relief, Alucard banished his familiars and sat down on the fallen tree, posture rigid, as his gaze turned back to the forest.
Seras let out a sigh of relief, watching her Master warily.
Alucard was trying, with futility, to banish the image of Daciana laying before him after he had struck her that night so long ago. Seras had fallen in almost exactly the same manner… The past seemed to be creeping up more frequently to haunt the ageless vampire, associations kept being made between then and the present day, and he was becoming ever more rattled by that. Having allowed a few passing thoughts through and influencing his actions had been a bad idea; it had put a crack in his mental walls and more were now stealing out before he could seal up that part of his memories.
He couldn't do this again. His tenuous sanity couldn't handle it. He was trying to get everything back in their proper spots in his mind. And now Seras just had to go stirring things up further, though he knew that she knew how unwise that was. She would have been food for his hounds if not for the image of Daciana flaring up again, reminding him of the guilt he had felt. He would have felt guilt for destroying Seras once his rage died down, once his reactive need to preserve his sanity had been filled, but it wouldn't have stopped him from doing it.
Alucard said in bitter reproof, "You really are a little fool, Police Girl."
"Perhaps," Seras admitted with a shaky laugh. "But even fools can be right sometimes, and we're not exempt from caring about others."
Alucard shook his head and continued to stare at the forest. He couldn't expose those wounds. They were already festering too deeply from recent irritations inflaming them. She needed to leave them be; leave him be.
Seras resumed sitting as she had been. "So, will you please tell me how I'm a fool, and what I did guess correctly?"
Alucard's shoulders slumped a fraction of an inch, almost unnoticeable with his thick coat covering them, and a flash of weariness showed on his face. Though both were brief, Seras still noticed them.
"I can tell something is upsetting you, Master…" Seras said tentatively. "I don't want to upset you, really I don't. But perhaps, maybe, if you'd talk about it, you'd feel better."
"Some things are best not discussed, Police Girl," Alucard said with an attempt at apathy.
"Maybe… But, well, I think I can say better than most that I know what it's like to have something hurt you deeply, to lose those you loved," Seras said with a frown, trying not to let the memories of what happened to her parents and herself surface, to simply speak of it as the past it was. "I bottled up so much for so long. I was so angry… But then I realized I was poisoning myself with my anger. I had to let it out, let it go, so I could try to do something with myself that would make my parents proud of me. I don't know if it'll help you, Master, but it couldn't hurt to try, right?"
Alucard made a noise of disdain, but had to clench his jaw to keep from frowning and showing his disquiet. He had heard all of this before, the psychology behind supposedly helping oneself move on by speaking about events that had happened. That was well and good for humans, but he wasn't human, and he hadn't been a normal man even before becoming a vampire. What applied to humans had never fit for him…
But he couldn't help but wonder if perhaps, this once, Seras might be right about something. These wounds perpetually festered inside him, closed off and ignored, and he never seemed to be able to lance them deeply enough to eradicate them.
Would something so base as talking about her finally allow those wounds to drain clean and stop dominating so much of his mind at the most inconvenient moments? And could he do it? She was inquiring after things that he hadn't spoken of to anyone who hadn't been immediately a part of the events to begin with.
Alucard supposed there were worse people to attempt speaking with than Seras. She did understand certain things better than most, he could grant her that. And he knew she was loyal to him, wouldn't spread what he said to others if commanded to silence… Though he also knew she'd likely be turning over every word he said to find every nuance, and he may not hear the end of this if he talked now…
Finally, the progenitor of vampires said quietly, with a hint of menace, "If you repeat anything I say to Walter or any other, or try to overanalyze it and question me again later, I will end your existence without hesitation. Are we clear?"
Seras nodded slowly, sitting up straighter. "Yes, my Master."
Alucard let out an annoyed puff of air through his aquiline nose, his usual not quite a sigh. Somehow, he had a feeling he'd eventually regret this, but maybe it was worth the attempt. He had already sacrificed everything in the past because he had thought it'd be worth it; what was sacrificing part of his privacy if it meant keeping his little remaining sanity? "You're a fool for inquiring where you have no rightful business; and fortunate that you are correct that perhaps some bits of my past have been in my thoughts and, for a moment, paralleled enough of the present that I withheld from properly dealing with you."
"How so?" Seras asked quietly.
Alucard's gaze shifted back to her, but the fury had left it now, replaced by a careful stoicism. "My wife was, as I'm sure you know from your incessant prying into my past, considered something of a princess of the people. Where I was respected by my people for being a protector of my country and champion of my people, and a stern arbitrator of the law when it was necessary; she was loved for being as kind hearted and generous as anyone could ever be, for sometimes counseling my judgements to be tempered with mercy, and it was a state of being that came as naturally to her as breathing."
Seras nodded. "That little bit is known of her through lore."
Alucard gave a wry smirk, thinking of the shocked expression his servant was likely to wear in a moment. "Yes, but what history and the peasants don't relate is that she was a princess solely by her marriage to myself. She was a peasant with not a single drop of noble or royal blood in her veins."
Seras didn't disappoint, jaw dropping as she blinked rapidly in surprise. "But, but…I thought…" The young vampire couldn't even form a coherent sentence as she looked at her master with bewilderment.
"That she was a daughter of a lesser noble? Or perhaps the illegitimate daughter of Hunyadi?" Alucard asked with a raised eyebrow. Seras nodded emphatically. "I would've never married into Hunyadi's family. As for being the daughter of a lesser noble, that is only what I fabricated proof of so that I could marry her with a little less protests from my boyars. My remodeling of the nobility when I took up my ancestral throne went deeper than history books relate."
Seras's eyes widened. "So, if she wasn't a noble allied with your family… how did you two even meet?"
Alucard's smirk faded away. "Her parents lived in a tiny village a few days travel from my father's home in Sighișoara. Her father was a Hungarian carpenter of some talent, who moved to Wallachia to make a living where there was less competition among those of his career. He passed away when she was a small child, from what we know now to be the flu and resulting pneumonia. Her mother was a daughter of a physician who had wasted his small wealth away with his gambling and drinking problems, but she had learned a great deal of his trade as she grew up. Her mother was a fairly reputable healer and midwife, and sometimes she was sent for when nobles wanted someone reliable to help bring forth their heirs. She was compensated well for her services and with her other work as a healer being utilized with the peasants for trade in goods, and including some skill at gardening and selling some of her produce, she managed to make a passably adequate living to support herself and her daughter.
"Such, among the menial existence of peasants, caused her to draw envious attention from her fellow villagers. Especially when she chose not to remarry a vocal suitor, and had their pet wolf chase him off."
"They had a pet wolf?" Seras asked, tentatively curious.
Alucard gave a brief nod, gaze going to one side. "Yes. Well, more precisely, the daughter did… While the midwife was pregnant, she had come across an abandoned and very young wolf cub, and mistook it for a domestic dog or half-breed. She took pity on it and nursed it through its infancy. By the time she realized her mistake, she had already given birth to her daughter and the wolf cub had already shown a keen interest in watching over the newborn. As the child grew, so did her closeness to the wolf cub, and she, over the mother, became the alpha in his eyes."
Seras muttered a "Huh!", then gave a little smile. "That's rather sweet, Master."
Alucard gave a noncommittal shrug. "You might think so, but the villagers did not. They accused the midwife of witchcraft and had her arrested, her daughter handed over to the midwife's elder half-sister for care, and the wolf was run off, barely escaping their attempt to have it killed. The half-sister's husband was of some standing in the village and convinced the others that they should at least wait for word to be sent to Târgoviste, to ask my father to preside over the trial and sentencing. He had a reputation for stern judgment and little tolerance for suspected witchcraft, and the villagers agreed because they were certain that he'd find her guilty and sentence her to death. However, she had been brought to Sighișoara before my father ascended to the throne, to deliver myself and my bastard brother. Her family hoped that my father would remember her kindly and deal with the accusations fairly."
"What happened when your father received the news?" Seras asked.
"He did indeed remember the midwife," Alucard said stoically. "He felt that though he paid her for her services, he did perhaps owe it to the woman who had safely delivered two of his sons to preside over her trial. He was also not ignorant to false claims of witchcraft by jealous villagers, especially in regards to midwives, and felt such may be the case with her and another may not be willing to judge her fairly. He brought me along with him to give me a lesson in dealing with such cases, so I could learn to be of better aide to my eldest brother when the time came.
"When we arrived to the village, he followed the directions to the family's home, wanting to speak with them first before proceeding to the town hall where the woman was being kept and the trial would be held. However, the door was answered by a girl a few years younger than myself, with curly chestnut hair that fell to her waist and light brown eyes wide with surprise, clutching in her hands a small, tattered leather bound book. Much to my surprise at seeing a peasant apparently able to read."
Alucard's gaze went back to the forest, but Seras still noticed a wistful expression pass fleetingly over his face. "It was the midwife's daughter?" she ventured.
Alucard nodded. "Yes, it was."
"What was her name?" Seras asked quietly.
"Daciana," Alucard said reluctantly.
Seras nodded once; glad to finally have a name to go with the legend of her master's first wife. "What happened when she answered the door?"
"My father asked the girl where the adults of the house were. She informed him that her uncle was in the fields working and her aunt had left not twenty minutes earlier to bring her mother some lunch. My father asked if anyone else was home. She told him she was looking after her baby cousins while her aunt made the trip because she didn't feel it was proper to bring the children to the spectacle that had become the town hall. My father simply nodded and told her to go back to her cousins, and lock the door behind her, until her aunt returned.
"The girl cast nervous glances between the two of us and then told my father that she knew what charges her mother had been arrested for, but her mother wasn't a witch as they were saying and he couldn't let them kill her when all she did was heal people as best as she could and take care of her. And if he could, to please forgive her hound for being a wolf, he was same as any other dog from having raised it since it was a pup and was her only companion; she didn't want the villagers to kill him either.
"My father told her that he would listen to the case fairly and judge it accordingly. The girl seemed to take solace with that rather noncommittal answer and profusely thanked him. My father told her again to lock the door and go back to her cousins, and that time the girl listened. I was surprised my father was so placid about the girl's small outburst; he generally didn't take kindly to people making demands of him. He said that he wasn't going to flog a girl child for being fearful for her mother's life and her pet's wellbeing, and coming off impertinent because of that fear."
"What happened with her mother when you arrived at the town hall?" Seras asked, holding her hands in her lap and listening intently.
"My father listened to the so-called evidence against the midwife and found it to be rubbish," Alucard said with a smirk. "He had the accusers horse whipped in the village square outside, each getting ten lashes for bearing false testimony against an innocent woman, ten for having made the oaths to tell the truth under God's name and breaking those oaths to God, and five more because he had had to interrupt his schedule to sort the mess out. They were ordered to leave the woman, her daughter, and their pet in peace, and be mindful that it was her hard-earned healing skills that aided them when they were in need. They should have factored into their decision making that her father was a physician and he had taught his only child his craft so she could be his assistant; it wasn't as though she had learned her trade from some hedge witch. In the future, if they did otherwise from as he instructed, they'd receive more than just lashings should word reach him that they had been unjustly persecuted again; and he wouldn't be inclined to issue a punishment against her should she order her faithful guard hound to do more than nip at the heels of those who tried to force their way into the family home."
Seras rolled her eyes at her Master's amusement to the harsh punishment, but was glad to hear that justice had prevailed and the midwife had lived. "So how did that lead to you and the girl becoming acquainted better?"
Alucard's face became impassive again. "My father could tell the woman was exhausted; the trial and punishment going later into the evening and she having been kept in poor conditions for over a week. He was concerned about her making it safely to her hut on the edge of the village with her child. He escorted her back to her sister's house to fetch the girl, and ordered me to follow his example and allow the girl to ride with me."
"That was kind of him," Seras said with a small smile.
"My father was a very strict man," Alucard said stoically, "but he had equally strong views on repaying one's debts, caring for one's people, and showing chivalry to women, regardless of station."
"Did you and the girl converse as you were bringing her home?"
Alucard gave a brief, dry chuckle; unable to help himself as he thought of that late night ride. He managed to cut the laugh off and say laconically, "In a manner of speaking."
Seras gave a distinctly confused look to her Master. "What happened?"
"When I tried to lift her onto my horse, she crossly told me that she wasn't going to sit side saddle because it was uncomfortable and unstable and she was afraid she'd fall off such a tall horse and break her neck," Alucard said with a small twitch of his lips that threatened to turn into a smile. Daciana had never been afraid to speak her mind, regardless of who she was speaking to. "I was horrified by her unladylike manners and told her that she couldn't very well sit like a man on the horse. She said she did it on their pony when bringing goods to or from the village, so she didn't see why she couldn't do it on my horse. I told her that her skirt would ride up and it was indecent for her to sit any animal in such fashion. Her mother interrupted us before we could bicker any further, telling Daciana that she was sure the prince wouldn't let her fall off the horse, so it would be fine to sit as instructed until we arrived at the house and she should thank my father and me for so kindly bringing them home. She reluctantly listened to her mother and allowed me to help her mount properly, though she was none too happy about it and made that clear with her glares as she said a short thank you."
"Charming," Seras said with a grin, trying to picture her Master as a child, arguing with another child about propriety. She could vaguely do so, and found the image amusing.
Alucard shook his head with a look of exasperation. "Not in the least."
"Something must have charmed you, as you later married her," Seras said knowingly.
Alucard gave his servant an unamused look, but she simply smiled back. He turned his gaze away again and said dryly, "I may have been curious as to the fact she could read and asked her after an annoying long silence what the book had been about, if it was simply a writing instruction book or perhaps poetry. She was again indignant with me, informing me that she had known how to read and write for some years already and it was a compendium on medicine and herbs that her family had constructed over the last few generations; she was studying under her mother's guidance to be a healer and midwife."
"So you made a proper 15th century sexist arse of yourself," Seras said with a giggle.
Alucard cast her a displeased glare, and she quickly stifled the giggle.
"Sorry, my Master," Seras said quietly, struggling to keep a smile from reforming.
Alucard kept his gaze pinned on her a few seconds longer, then turned his gaze back to the woods. "After a short bickering back and forth, we ended up having a conversation about her studies and mine, switching from our local dialect to Hungarian when she said she could speak it as well and I didn't believe her. She ended up being surprisingly pleasant to speak with, so long as I didn't make assumptions about her based on ladies from court or what I knew of peasants, nor insinuate that she shouldn't be doing something just because she was a woman.
"When we arrived at her mother's hut, she plucked a white rose from a bush growing out front and handed it to me, thanking me in truth for the escort home. I accepted the token and she followed her mother back inside…"
"Awwww," Seras interrupted with a grin. "That was sweet of her."
"My father would have disagreed with you, and did. Having witnessed our conversation, he lectured me for some time during our ride about the difference between showing respect for a peasant or woman and becoming too familiar with them. As a prince, I needed to know where that line stood and I should have refused the rose, even if it was white and represented purity and friendship, because it showed an inappropriate level of familiarity with the peasant girl."
Seras pouted to that blunt response. "I take that back; your father was the arse to get so upset over something so little."
"Such was the times, Police Girl," Alucard said dismissively.
Seras shrugged. "So, you went back to the castle with your father, some days travel away, and then what? How did you two meet again?"
Alucard frowned and said, "Though my father's attitude was the standard for the time, I think you and I could agree that I dislike convention, and that was the case even then. I also couldn't take that particular reprimand on the lines of chivalry very seriously when it was coming from him, given the mistresses he had and spawning my bastard and younger brother from different women than my mother. He and his priest absolved it as making sure our line had enough successors, but it was a thin excuse for his hypocrisy.
"I spent the next several months attending to my studies alongside my brothers and the other boys at court, but I found myself feeling resentful of their company. They were not my friends, but the other sons of lords that I was expected to be friends with. They idolized my eldest brother for his skill with a sword; my bastard brother was respected for his knowledge of the Bible and history; and my younger brother was always the quickest to laugh at stupid jokes made, which endeared him to the fools.
"I ended up having a petty argument with one of the boys, I can't even recall what it was about, but my father was displeased with me. We had a fight over my behavior, with him reminding me that those boys would someday grow up to be the men my brothers and I would rely on to help keep our country and throne secure, so I needed to go make peace with them. I grudgingly apologized for my part in the quarrel, then went for a ride to have time to myself. I ended up remembering the ride with the girl and that I had genuinely enjoyed her company when we stopped arguing, which was a rarity for me. In a pique of utter disregard for what my father would say, I left the town and made my way to her village to visit with her again."
Seras giggled again, well able to imagine her Master being a headstrong and defiant young man, especially when a girl was involved. "How old were you?"
"It was just after my twelfth birthday," Alucard said dryly.
"Twelve years old and running away from home?" Seras asked in surprise.
Alucard chuckled. "That was more a rebellious moment, and not actually running away… That would be later."
Seras's eyes widened. "You actually ran away? When did that happen?"
"The next time I disliked something my father demanded of me," Alucard said with a sudden return of facial stoicism and a faintly foreboding note to his voice.
Seras decided not to inquire further at the moment and instead asked, "So did you make it to her house?"
Alucard gave a brief nod. "I did. I had a head start because my father hadn't expected me back until dinner, and he had no idea where I had gone off to. So much time had passed since I had last been to that village that the incident had slipped his memory and he searched other places for me when he realized I had gone missing. I was able to fend for myself by hunting some game that remained during the winter. And when two tramps tried to steal my horse because they thought a pampered noble boy alone on the road would be easy prey, they both ended up dead for the presumption; but I had taken a small injury, a slice from a dagger across my leg, in the process."
"Good thing you were on your way to a healer's house, then," Seras said, not surprised her Master had had no problem, even at twelve, killing other men if they crossed him.
"Indeed," Alucard agreed wryly. "However, the healer was not home, having left to deliver some syrups and crystalized herbs to some of the other villagers who were sick from whichever illness was flying about that winter. The daughter was, having been left behind to tend their dinner, mind other chores needing to be done, and be home in case others came looking for her mother."
"I bet she was surprised to see you again," Seras said with a renewed grin.
Alucard nodded, a faint smirk forming. "She was."
"Did she patch you up?"
"She gave me a salve and wrapped the wound, yes," Alucard said with a hint of indignation. "It wasn't a large injury needing 'patching'."
"My apologies, Master," Seras said with a poorly concealed smile.
"I think you're gaining far too much amusement from this, Police Girl," Alucard said, turning his gaze back to the forest. He was not relating this story for her entertainment; he was attempting to get it out of his mind so it would finally leave him to his existence in peace.
"Wha?!" Seras exclaimed unhappily. She shuffled forward on her knees to be able to sit closer as she said, "Now, don't be like that, Master! You've never told me any of this before. It's just nice to know some things about you from back then and have a few more pieces of the puzzle."
Alucard continued to glare out at the forest, but his brief flash of anger was already cooling because a part of his mind recognized she hadn't meant any harm, she was just being Seras. And for some reason, the Police Girl was always trying to 'figure him out'. Especially his life from before he became the Vampire King.
"So… She was happy to see you again?" Seras ventured, tilting to one side a bit so she was further in his line of sight.
Alucard made a small noise of disagreement, then said humorlessly, "She chastised me quite severely for leaving the castle by myself and getting myself injured."
"But she was happy to see you again, despite that," Seras prodded.
Alucard was silent for several seconds, and then said, "Yes."
"What happened after she took care of your injury?"
"She gave me dinner and we talked for a while. I ranted about how much I disliked my father and the idiots he made me tolerate. She told me that she supposed it was part of being alive, having to deal with people one didn't care for; but at least I could be thankful I didn't have to deal with the villagers, and had the advantage of my father being the ruler and so people were less openly hostile to me than they'd otherwise be. I told her I'd rather the open hostility, because then at least it'd be honest. She called me an idiot that didn't know how to be thankful for what he had. I said she was an idiot because she was making dismissive judgments on a life she couldn't understand. We argued for several minutes, then seemed to forget what we were arguing over to begin with and laughed at how foolish the argument had become. After that, we talked about her studies with her mother and mine with my tutors, about our families, and whatever else came to our minds.
"Her mother came home very late into the night; we had had to stoke the fire back up three times to keep their little two-room hut warm. She had seen my horse, but thought it was the horse of a messenger from a lord. She was extraordinarily surprised to find her daughter still awake and talking to one of the princes over tea. When she found out what happened, she chastised me even more than her daughter had, made up a pallet for me and sent us to bed, and left for her sister's house to have her brother-in-law send word to my father regarding my whereabouts. I spent the next four days enjoying my freedom from the castle, and dreading my father's inevitable arrival."
"How much trouble were you in with your father?"
"Not enough for me to consider the trip not worth the resulting punishment," Alucard said with a hint of a smirk, "but enough to keep me from trying to make it again for some time because I wasn't keen on repeating my punishment."
"But you tried to go back eventually?" Seras asked curiously.
Alucard nodded. "Yes."
"When?"
"When I came to think that it'd be worth worse than the punishment my father could try inflicting because I had nothing left to lose and everything to gain."
"What do you mean?" Seras asked, eyebrows drawing together in confusion.
"My father announced a year later that, as my eldest brother was his heir and needed to stay home, and my elder bastard brother had recently left for the monastery to continue his chosen vocation of becoming a monk, my younger brother and I were going with him into the heart of the Ottoman Empire as part of a peace treaty they were making, and we would likely be asked to stay behind as royal guests to be raised there for a better understanding of their culture and to improve relations. I knew it really meant we'd be hostages for my father's good behavior, as we were greatly outnumbered by them and they were tired of his resistance to expansion efforts. If he didn't agree to their 'offer', they would have marched against us in force and removed him from his throne. I didn't want to be a hostage whose life was indefinitely dependent on his cooperation, so I decided I'd run away to my only real friend, convince her to leave behind the villagers she didn't like, and we'd go someplace where we could do as we wanted for ourselves."
Seras had to resist saying "Awwww" again, knowing it would only annoy her master. Instead, she simply asked, "And what happened to muck it up? You were sent to the Turks, so did she not want to go with you? Did your father stop you before you could get to her?"
"No, I successfully snuck out of the castle and made it to her, and she was willing to leave with me…"
Seras could swear she heard the tiniest hint of regret in Alucard's voice.
"…What I hadn't known before that third time seeing her was that her mother wasn't a witch, but she was intuitive, and she had inherited her mother's intuition to a stronger degree, sometimes having visions of the future."
"Daciana was a seer like Miss Mercedes?!" Seras gasped in surprise.
Alucard nodded once, abruptly. He didn't like drawing parallels to the two women and confusing the situation, but the facts were as they were. "To an extent, yes. Though I believe Mercedes's gifts are more honed because she didn't try suppressing them as much Daciana did for fear of being accused of witchcraft and dying. Daciana also didn't delve into dark magic as Mercedes has, though she was curious about the lighter aspects of the occult."
"But, didn't you hate seers or anyone with connections to anything supernatural? To the point of impaling anyone who was accused of it?"
Alucard gave a twisted, humorless smirk. Even with admitting this, Seras would still never understand just how much he had sacrificed, ultimately in vain, for the sake of his family. "I did what I had to, to keep potential threats from coming into contact with my wife and possibly exposing her gift. And when it became apparent after her death that our son had inherited her gift to an extent, I had to continue giving no tolerance for such outsiders to keep Mihnea safe."
Seras's jaw had slackened, mouth hanging open an inch or so. She asked in disbelief, having a hard time making a coherent sentence, "But, I mean, most had to be innocent, couldn't you have… Or, wasn't there…"
"Wasn't there some other way?" Alucard finished for her. Seras nodded. "None so certain to help ward off legitimate occultists and seers from my lands. And with me being so very harsh about the matter, who would even dare think I could tolerate such people in my own family? No, there was no other way. It was the most efficient way to keep them safe, and that was all I cared about when it came to that matter, even if it meant using people who were sometimes innocent to maintain the image that I had nothing but disdain for the supernatural."
"And Mihnea had inherited his mother's gift?" Seras asked quietly, still processing this revelation.
Alucard nodded. "Yes, he did."
"Just like little Xander has inherited Mercedes's gifts," Seras murmured, more to herself.
Alucard's eyes flared with hellfire and he turned his gaze away. "Yes."
Seras asked tentatively, "Master? What form did Mihnea's familiars take?"
Alucard's jaw clenched tightly, and shadows started to creep around his form again.
Seras guessed on intuition, given his response and the other parallels, "Mihnea favored snakes, didn't he?"
Alucard's blazing glare was back on her, making her cringe, but he answered briefly with, "Given their occult links and our House's name, Mihnea felt it appropriate to choose various serpents, including snakes, as his familiars."
"And their appearances, they're similar, aren't they?"
"Police Girl, as you should well know," Alucard said frigidly, "there's only a finite combination of natural features a person can have. If you live to be several centuries old, you'll end up meeting many people who look so close to someone you once knew that you'd swear they were siblings, maybe even twins. It's even more likely nowadays with there being billions of people alive at the same time, instead of just hundreds millions. There are many humans who meet someone who looks near identical to themselves or a loved one.
"And you're going to find that out of those many people, a handful will have some similar qualities that the person of the past did. There's only just so many personality archetypes to develop into. And should they breed with the right person, they could very well end up birthing a child that looks similar to a child that other person had, and perhaps passing on even more selective innate talents. It's just a simple matter of genetics and probability; and when you live long enough and travel frequently, and with humanity exponentially becoming more prolific, the steep odds against the improbability eventually deal out similar combinations."
Seras remained silent, thinking on the matter and watching her master. "So, Miss Mercedes and Xander really are reminding you of them, and you're trying to protect them because of it?"
"I'm not confusing them for those in the past, nor using them as proxies, if that's what you're insinuating," Alucard's tone was akin to a dagger now, words slicing through the air between them.
"No, of course not, Master!" Seras exclaimed, holding up her hands in placation, waving the statement aside. "Only saying that it must really be difficult to have such a similar set of circumstances, in some ways, happen again after all this time, and it makes sense in a way that you'd feel compelled to help them."
Alucard nodded once and asked briskly, "Are we done this interrogation then?"
"You haven't told me what happened when you went to Daciana and asked her to leave with you," Seras said with an equal mix of hesitancy and curiosity. "Nor how you came to change her status as a peasant and marry her."