Several creaks and cracks from his back woke Leon up. He groaned upon realizing he had taken a rather long nap on a hard wooden floor, nothing but an old blanket between him and it. Next time-because he was certain he didn't know how to travel back through time yet-he was going to search for several emergency bedrolls, or pillows, or even just more blankets.
Surely his family would not leave the hold barren of anything comfortable to sit or lay on. It may have been just below the house, but he knew researching could take time. The Belmont Hold was also an extra safe space, and he'd be damned before he let it go without emergency supplies. Like pillows.
Aches aside though, Leon felt refreshed, mentally and emotionally. He'd had a good, long cry, gone through several stunning revelations, and been able to sleep on it all.
Leon couldn't remember his dreams, but they had felt odd, surreal. Even so, they must have been helping him sort everything out, because he felt ready to face the new day and new knowledge. Breathing deeply, Leon took all his new information-Mathias, Dracula, Alucard, Trevor, miles and miles of emotion-and simply accepted everything as it was. Trevor, Sypha, and even Alucard would help him; He could do this.
After several more stretches and popped joints, Leon got up and began looking around.
It seemed he had slept in a section devoted to magic on locations, or movement? He thought he might be on the second floor from the bottom, so he wove between shelves and displays until he reached the center area.
No one was immediately in sight, but the Belmont Hold was also far bigger than Leon had initially built it, with many materials shelved and preserved, towering over the narrow spaces between them.
So, with no indication as to where he should go, he began to wander around. It was fascinating-and a little frightening he could admit-to see all the new things lined up. Not just the books, but skulls or scales from defeated enemies, objects which used to be or were still haunted, dried up potions which had various sinister effects, and even different magical materials used in alchemy.
Leon studied those, wondering how long the knowledge had been passed down in his line. The Belmont family didn't appear to be as intuitively great at it as the Cronqvists had been, but they also had their own duties to perform as hunters, which had likely taken time away from the study.
Even so, Leon hoped it had helped his family in their trials.
So absorbed was he in looking through the objects he passed-like an ancient sacrificial knife, good thing they had stopped whoever was using it-that he didn't notice Sypha until she rounded a corner and called out to him.
"Leon, you're awake." She smiled, appearing glad to see him, so Leon smiled back.
"Miss Sypha," he greeted. "I am."
"Oh, please don't. Just Sypha."
"Ah, yes, that's right. My apologies." The other Speakers had said much the same, but his noble-taught manners were difficult to reign in sometimes.
"Don't worry about it. Are you feeling better now?" She reached out a hand to place on his forearm, brows furrowed in concern. Leon couldn't help but smile wider at her care.
"Yes. Very much, thank you. Ah... Alucard mentioned I may be able to answer some of your questions?"
Sypha's eyes lit up, her whole body bouncing as she turned on heel and headed into one of the rows of bookshelves.
"Yes, yes of course! I would love that, thank you. Actually, I know quite some time has passed since you have technically been in this hold, but if you could tell me more about the system here? I have been looking through what sorts of spells might have contributed to your being here, since Trevor mentioned a little about what he heard from you, but having your input would be very helpful. Ah! Here, if you could look at this spell here..."
They spent some time pouring over the various spells written in the books Sypha had picked out. While some were wildly off track, she had gotten very close to what Leon had been working on with the little bit of information she'd had. Leon was impressed.
He corrected a few of her assumptions, then laid out what he had been doing right before he had arrived in the current time.
Sypha seemed to find his spell intriguing and immediately pulled down several other texts with similar language.
"This is all Welsh? It seems different, older, but not quite Brittonic?" she wondered aloud. Once she had her books, she came back to the area Leon was sitting in and settled in beside him.
"Mostly. Trefor was familiar with the older roots of the language, and he was the one who found the spell initially," Leon affirmed.
"Trefor? Oh! Your traveling companion. Yes, he was from Wales, far to the north, wasn't he?"
"That's right. Meeting him was a bit of chance, but I'm glad I did." Leon felt the smile on his face, and allowed himself the warmth in his chest as he thought of his friend, before turning back to the topic of magic. "Up until that point, when I... well, somehow traveled through time, we had tried only small, simple versions of the spell. And they worked well enough. I'm still not certain what went wrong, exactly. Perhaps I did not have enough will? Or focus?"
"Do you use will to power your spells normally?" she asked.
"Not quite the way Speakers do, but yes. It's a mix of things, since I did not have magical prowess as a child. I came to discover it after a... a good friend gifted me some tools he made through alchemy. They allowed me to feel and use magic I was not otherwise able to." He held out his glove for inspection.
"May I?" Sypha asked. Leon nodded, fascinated by the way she so easily summoned flame to test the glove. Though it did not burn, Leon's hand was getting hot, so he asked her to stop. "Amazing. It doesn't quite stop the magic, but the glove draws in some of its power."
"Yes. And because of that, I learned the feel of it-and how to channel that magic in different ways."
"I see. So you are used to moving magic which is already present." Sypha was flipping through a couple books at once, plopping one with faded blue binding on his lap. "In that case, let's assume your will was sufficient, for now. You did travel to this time in one piece, after all."
She gave him an impish grin, which Leon returned with a grimace and nervous chuckle. He didn't want to think about what could have happened to him otherwise.
"But still, if the magic which was present sent you through time, rather than stopping it on the objects you were focused on... what could it have been?"
"A good question. And why to this time?" Leon was looking down at the diagram on the delicate pages. It showed the ingredients he remembered placing out and the same symbols he drew. "Was there really something which could have drawn in any similar magic?"
"Drawn in..." Sypha muttered. She had a fierce, concentrating expression on her face now, lips pushed out as she ran a finger across certain pages. "Perhaps. I don't think any of us activated objects which could have done it."
Leon stretched. "I may ask the others anyway, just to be certain. I can also look through the lectern."
"Go on then," Sypha said, shooing him with one hand. "Stretch your legs."
Leon chuckled. She'd seen right through him. "I'll be back later."
So Leon left, simply wandering about to give his body a chance to be in different positions. He would stop occasionally near different displays, stretching out his arms, or legs, or back while looking through them. Relaxation came easier to Leon as he felt the tension seeping from his muscles with each stretch; He made sure to do as many as possible. Research had become a different thing once he'd become a hunter-he knew the value of breaks.
And speaking of breaks, Leon thought as his stomach rumbled, I don't think I've eaten a single thing since I arrived.
So now, of course, he was ravenously hungry. It had been the better part of a night, morning, and afternoon since his last meal. He wasn't sure where to go to get food, but he thought he could just ask Sypha where they stashed any of their supplies. He could also offer to go gathering or hunting meat for them later. He hoped there were still some of those good berry bushes around.
As he pondered what changes the landscape might have gone through over such a long time, he found Trevor.
The man was riffling through a display, sorting out the different weapons he found there. While he wasn't initially concerned by another presence-though the way he tilted his head let Leon know he'd been heard-when Trevor finally turned to see who had shown up, his hands fumbled and he nearly dropped a specialized throwing axe.
"Oh! Yes, hi. That's right, you woke up." Trevor put his hand to the back of his neck, rubbing back and forth.
"I did," Leon said, torn between comforting and laughing. He settled for a smile, though didn't know which emotion it displayed. "Actually, I was just wondering about getting some food. It's been a while since I've had a meal."
Trevor set the weapons back in their display, wiping his palms on his pants. "Food, right. Alucard left a little while ago to get some more, I think."
"Oh. I shall go help him then." It only seemed fair to chip in when he would be eating as well. They hadn't accounted for his presence during their travel here, he was certain.
Trevor turned his head away, bangs briefly covering his eyes. "Right."
Ah. Leon had, for only a moment, forgotten their fight. Their encounter before Leon went to sleep hadn't been awkward... but perhaps that was because Leon had been tired-he tended to miss things in that state. Did Trevor wish to avoid him then? Did he need more time?
Leon wanted to give it to him, if that's what he wanted, but he'd also hoped for time to apologize.
"If you don't mind," Leon said, "would you show me to your supplies? I can help bring spices and things up to him as well..."
Trevor said with no hesitation, "Yeah, yeah of course."
So they walked to the bottommost floor, somewhere in the middle, past the lectern. Trevor kept ahead of Leon, and Leon, now in a situation like he'd wanted, suddenly struggled with how to break the silent tension. The supplies-in bags and baskets and bundles-were piled together, and Trevor gestured to a couple of them, saying they were for salt and some of the herbs collected along the roadside.
"Trevor?" Leon kept most of his attention on the bags he sorted through, but noticed when Trevor's shoulders began to creep up. "I think, about last night..."
"Don't- It's fine."
"It's not," Leon said. Trevor's mouth was a hard line, but his eyes were hesitant, braced even. "I would like to apologize."
"Y- Apologize?" Trevor sounded suspicious.
"Yes. For some of the things I said. Or implied." Leon set the supplies down, sighing as he turned his full attention to Trevor, Trevor reciprocating. "In my time, there is only me. I never wanted that to happen to anyone else, especially anyone who would be family."
Trevor shrugged, but uncomfortably. "Not your fault."
"...I know," Leon said, trying to convince himself. "But nor is it yours. It also is not your duty to- to force yourself to carry on the family line."
Trevor sat up, ramrod straight, looking like Leon had just slapped him across the face. Leon himself felt like the words had shriveled a part of his heart, a part which longed for hunters of the future to be taught kindness, and chivalry, and care for those they protected. But this was not his time.
"This is not my time, and your life is not mine. But I-" Leon stopped, looking aside as heat rushed to his face. It felt difficult to declare these things to family you didn't know-or didn't know, but desperately wished to. Leon sighed. "I had hoped- I suppose I wanted to protect you."
Trevor stayed silent for two seconds before saying, "I don't need protection."
His statement wasn't mean or cruel, it wasn't looking down on Leon; The way Trevor said it, it was simply a fact. Trevor Belmont was a hunter of night creatures, and he didn't need protection. However...
"What about allies?" Leon asked, tone soft. "You have two who would fight alongside you already."
Trevor's expression softened in turn. "They, yeah. I wouldn't even think about doing this without them."
"They are quite fierce," Leon said, chuckling.
"Definitely."
"I think Alucard mentioned something about fighting upon first meeting 'Belmonts'?"
"That did happen." Trevor scratched at his nose, but a smile stayed on his face. "To be fair, I thought he was Dracula."
"Really?"
"Look," Trevor defended, "he was in a coffin, he had blood tanks, lights without fire, what was I supposed to think?"
Leon laughed. "It seems he's forgiven you for it, if he was willing to come get me from outside."
Trevor's smile slowly fell. "About that..." Leon shook his head.
"I, I needed the time to process. And we both had misunderstandings. I suppose, I'm trying to say, will you allow me to fight alongside you then? As your ally?"
"I uh, yeah, sure. Wait-" Trevor replaced his stunned look with a furrowed brow. "If you died, would that fuck anything up? I'm not sure how magical traveling through time works..."
"Neither am I," Leon said, feeling a small measure of sheepishness. "But I can hardly stand aside. We will..." Leon took a breath, looking directly at Trevor and almost commanded the next lines. "We will work together, watch each other's backs. All of us. Because I will not have you walking to your death, Trevor Belmont."
Trevor opened his mouth, paused, then closed it; Face held in his hand, he ran a finger along the scar over his eye. Finally he said, "Fine. Fine, together."
He held out a hand, posture strong and formal even while kneeling on the floor. The effect was ruined by his immediate look of embarrassment, but Leon just grinned and took the hand in his own, shaking it firmly.
"Together."
How am I getting all these chapters out? It's almost like the announcement of s4 + such excited comments motivated me or something. x3
idk if I can get out another chapter before May, but we'll see.
So hey, Leon talking to people! Researching, making friends, all very healthy things. Good for him. ´͈ ᵕ `͈ °◌̊
Also, please throw your thoughts and feelings at me! It's very fun! ∩˙▿˙∩ Keep safe, spend some time relaxing, and see y'all next time!
