"If it's natural to kill, how come men have to go into training to learn how?" - Joan Baez
At last. After hunger, humiliation, hail, bribes and even battle, Lenore, Hector, and the vampires accompanying them neared the edge of the forest separating them from Belmont, their most unlikely of destinations. It had been a long, arduous journey for the vampires. Not all had survived. Those who did stood pale and gaunt, bloodied and bloody. The sustenance from hostile humans who had tried to stop them did not make up for the preceding hardship. Some still nursed wounds from their final encounter, slow to heal due to their present state. Striga herself now limped – magical regeneration against scattershot is no simple feat. But what mattered most was that they were alive. And hopefully, this place, most unlikely of places, would be their haven.
By the light of the moon, they found a small brook and stopped. At Lenore's encouragement, the vampires overcame their innate dislike of currents and entered the water, using it to wash out the dust, dirt, and most importantly any dried blood that now stained their tattered clothes. The water was cold. Few had anything dry to change into. Red and brown stains lingered in the waterlogged fabric, an amalgamation of grime, the blood of human assailants, and their own, darker and thicker blood. Still, it greatly helped. Hopefully enough to convince a town named after a monster hunter that they were not monsters.
Squeezing the water from her once-luxurious dress, Lenore went over to Striga, who was sitting on a rock. "How are you doing?" she asked.
Striga shook her head. "It's not healing right," she replied. Large, fading bruises and discolored spots concealing half regenerated rib fractures riddled her torso. More troublesome was her left knee. A fragment or piece of shrapnel had somehow found its way past her leg armor and into the joint itself. No amount of supernatural regeneration would heal the wound until they were in a place where the physician could surgically operate.
At least she was alive. Most vampires would have never gotten back up. Not against a weapon of that firepower.
As dawn drew near, the group neared the forest's edge. The trees gradually thinned enough for them to see what lay beyond. There, in the distance, arose Dracula's old castle. Even in the darkness, the labyrinthine towers and suspended passageways clearly bore heavy damage, far beyond anything that could have happened to it at Braila. Lenore almost didn't even want to know what happened. As they came closer, they made out a smattering of human-made huts and houses surrounding the massive structure, all guarded by a wood and earthen wall. Despite the massive edifice in the center, the village was overall a remarkably underwhelming sight. Yet everyone knew, from Lenore to Hector especially, that this was their destination. Belmont.
"Well, here we are," quietly said Lenore. The vampires hunkered down in anticipation of the imminent light of morning.
"Have you contacted Alucard?" asked Striga. She had some skepticism still about the wisdom of expecting such a close ally of Belmont to behave any differently.
"Not yet. Hold on." Lenore retrieved her distance mirror as Striga asked herself why Lenore had waited until now to establish contact. Then again, hadn't she always shown this pattern of alternating brilliance and idiocy? Striga watched as Lenore set the mirror on the ground, she clapped twice and said, "Show me Alucard." The shards arose and revealed the dhampir sitting with a dark skinned woman, perhaps of Romani origin. Lenore knelt. "Alucard, son of Dracula, I –"
She noticed that the Dhampir had not changed his gaze one a single bit. "Alucard, can you hear me!? Alucard!" It dawned on her. He didn't have a distance mirror around. Frustration growing, she declared "show me a distance mirror inside Dracula's castle." The shards fell back into their box, as if asked to perform an impossible task.
The former vampire diplomat could barely contain her surprised exasperation. "How the fuck is there not a distance mirror in Dracula's castle!?" she exclaimed.
"Dracula had not only a distance but a transmission mirror, so I don't know what to say," said Hector. The group briefly conferred about who to send forward, who to risk. Striga, threatening in appearance, was out of the question. Hector had the advantage of being a human, but he lacked Lenore's silver tongue, and more importantly, he did not know what would become of him if they learned his role in Dracula's wars, in the attempt to resurrect him. Lenore, however, was still a being of the night. Sending an unaccompanied vampiric emissary to a town named after vampiric extermination, without so much as a human to vouch for her, sounded like a recipe for being killed on the spot. Stories had always circulated of the ancestral Belmonts' cruelty, of their torture of young natural-borns, of mounds of vampiric skulls kept as trophies.
For this reason, the decision was ultimately made that both Hector and Lenore would go forward, while the rest of the group stayed back at the woods' edge. Lenore used the rest of the morning to try and sleep a few hours before packing up her distance mirror for this final stretch. Hector decided to bring along the papers on his old book project, just in case it proved useful. The two departed late that afternoon as a light cloud cover partially shielded the slowly setting sun. Despite the limited protection, Lenore still wore her full daywear and veil. The fabric was tattered and frayed, but not enough to render it useless, and she wanted to arrive before the town's leadership had fully turned in for the night.
As they walked, Hector felt an uneasy sense of déjà vu, and not because of the castle's familiarity. Turning to Lenore, he asked, "There's nothing you have planned that you don't want to tell me, right Lenore?"
"No," she instantly responded. A momentary part in the clouds allowed sunlight onto a frayed portion of her sleeve, causing her to momentarily grimace and cover the area with her gloved hand. Lenore really hoped there was a tailor in this town.
Hector pressed, "Do you mean it?"
"Of course, I do! I swear." Lenore lifted her hand slightly and confirmed there was no serious damage, just a slightly singed tender spot that would heal quickly. "I'm not planning any sort of deceit."
The forgemaster sighed. He knew Lenore well enough to know she truly "meant it," but he also knew her well enough to know she truly had "meant it" in the past. "Just remember. There are no second chances this time. Not here."
The two of them reached a wooden gateway just after the sun had dipped below the horizon. A guard or watchman of sorts spotted and approached them in the fading light. "Who goes there," he demanded, torch in hand.
The guard watched as one of the two, a man, stepped forward and spoke first. "My name is Hector, and this is Lenore."
"We're with a small group of refugees from the west," joined in his counterpart Lenore, an oddly dressed woman with a distinct foreign accent. A thick black veil covered her face. "We need to speak with Alucard about if we may find safety here."
The guard looked quizzical as a second one approached. "I mean, uh yes. The town of Belmont has an open-door policy towards all people fleeing monsters or what not. No need to speak with the leadership…" he said incredulously.
"No," Lenore stated. She paused to choose her words carefully. "This is… an unusual situation. Please, ask Alucard to grant us an audience."
Confusedly looking at his comrade for a moment, the first guard then turned back towards this odd woman, covered head to toe in fabric. Increasingly suspicious, he held his torch up to try and make out what lay behind the veil. "Wait a minute," he said as his tone darkened. "Are you a –"
Instinctively stepping back from the torch's flame, the "woman" hesitated, looked at her clearly human counterpart, and then pushed back her veil. The torchlight revealed a pair of elongated ears and an unnaturally pale face, slightly gaunt from malnourishment. "Yes… I'm a vampire," Lenore said, staring at the ground, "as are the others, except him." She gestured towards Hector. A single fang glinted in the torchlight when she spoke. Lenore looked back up with imploring eyes. "The western kingdoms are hunting us down. We don't know who else to turn to. Please, we mean no harm."
The two guards instinctively backed away and clutched their weapons, suddenly on guard. They looked at each other and began speaking in hurried, hushed tones, perhaps believing that Lenore couldn't hear them.
"Shouldn't we kill her on the spot? A vampire's a vampire, and orders are orders."
"I don't think that's what they meant. If we off them, and learn they were telling the truth, Alucard and Greta will throw a fit."
"Are you saying you trust her?"
"Hell no! I'm saying we leave this to the leaders to decide."
Lenore interjected. "Again, we're not asking you to make a final decision. All we want is an audience with Alucard. Please."
The guard turned and seemingly made a unilateral decision, "Oh, believe me, Alucard and the others will see this. You're coming with us." Two more guards arrived, and together began to escort Lenore and Hector into the town. They held their weapons at the ready, their torches were raised, their eyes alert. Lenore and Hector exchanged a glance, briefly asking themselves if compliance really was the best choice. But they sensed that the guards were more afraid of them than the other way around. The town watchmen led them into the castle, up several of its myriad staircases, and finally into the dark, sparsely furnished room that would serve as their accommodation for the night. Dusty and disused, it contained a table, some chairs, a few candles, and little else.
One of the gruffer guards forcefully ushered them in. "For now, you're staying here. Come morning, Alucard and the others will decide what to do with you and your supposed group. Don't you dare try anything sneaky!" he snorted as he closed the door.
"For god's sake, they're envoys, not prisoners of war!" Lenore heard one of his comrades retort on the other side of the door. The only immediate illumination was a window letting in the moonlight.
"You're too trusting of them, after everything we've been through!" The bickering voices grew fainter and fainter until giving way to silence. An unknown amount of time passed, and then Hector turned to Lenore.
"What a brilliant plan," he said sardonically. "Now we're at the mercy of this place's leaders, and separated from the rest of the group."
"Be quiet." Lenore shot back in a hushed voice as Hector lit a candle with a spurt of magic. "The most important thing is that we're getting our audience with Alucard. I'm going to update Striga and the rest, hold on."
Hector rolled his eyes as Lenore retrieved her distance mirror. "You know, Alucard has killed his fair share of vamp – "
Suddenly Lenore shushed him. "Someone's coming!" She stashed away her distance mirror again, just in time for the door to open. One of the nicer guards was back, carrying some blankets.
"Sorry about the attitude of the others," he said. "Most in this village have had… very negative experiences with vampires, losing friends, families, and so forth." He wiped the dust off one of the tables and plopped the bedsheets on top. "I don't know if either of you still sleep at night, but if so, this will make it easier hopefully. Oh, and one more thing." He then pulled out a basket containing a loaf of bread, and a vial of some kind of blood. Shifting the bread towards Hector, he said "Take this if you're hungry," before turning his attention to Lenore and cringing slightly, as if slightly disgusted by his own kindness. "Sorry, it's just the blood of a rat our cook caught and killed… but hopefully it works."
"Thank you," quietly answered Lenore as he left. With the click of the lock, she and Hector were again alone in the dim room. Hector, having not eaten in at least a day, immediately went for the bread, noting that it wasn't even moldy. He then went to sleep. He was exhausted. For her part, Lenore watched her human partner, and then looked down at the tiny, half filled vial of rat's blood with a twinge of envy. Opening it hesitantly, she drank the contents, retched as the vile excuse of blood touched her tongue, and discarded the rest as disgust overcame hunger. Instead, she pulled out her distance mirror and contacted Striga.
"What's your situation Lenore?" her counterpart asked. "They aren't holding you captive, are they?"
"We're fine," Lenore quietly answered, dodging the question. "The initial entry was hard, but we are going to get an audience with the town leadership. I'll get back to you tomorrow as soon as I have an update. Until then, stay put."
"Do you trust them?"
Lenore hesitated. "Yes." Striga looked skeptical, but with a half-healed ribcage and shrapnel still embedded inside her, the vampiric warrior was not in a place to put up much of a fight.
"If you say so."
A sleepless night passed for Lenore, too reverted back to her unnatural rhythm to truly rest. She examined the window in anticipation of the coming daylight. The shutters were damaged by whatever cataclysm befell the rest of the castle, but fortunately there was a rod as well for some simple curtain or shades. She draped the blanket the guard provided her across it, moved to a corner facing the door, and waited. Hours passed. The night slowly slipped away, and traces of dawn's light began to filter through the blanket covered window. Hector stirred awake, and Lenore greeted him in the most preoccupied of manners as she donned her veil and daywear. "Alucard would see them soon, right?" Lenore silently asked herself as the sunlight filtering through the covered window grew brighter.
Just as Lenore began to question her hosts' true intentions, someone banged on the door and opened it. Even with her veil, the sudden influx of light almost caused Lenore to shirk backwards a little. There, standing in the entrance along with one of the guards, were the people Lenore saw in the distance mirror – a dark skinned woman, a gruff looking man, a red-headed, fair-skinned woman, and Alucard.
"Here they are, the vampire and human who asked to see Alucard. They said there are more vampires, and they are requesting asylum?" the guard said.
The gruff looking man scowled slightly. "I thought your orders were to kill or sound the alarm on any intruding vampires," he said. With a twinge of fear, Lenore realized that this was the legendary living Belmont the common soldiers used to whisper about.
"We also told them to let in anyone seeking refuge. Give him a break, Trevor," retorted the dark skinned woman.
"Greta has a point," said the red-headed woman.
Before anyone else could speak, Lenore immediately got on her knees before Alucard. "Alucard Tepes, son of Dracula, heir of this great castle, my group of vampires and I come to you as refugees. Our kingdom has been crushed, conquered amid the chaos reverberating from your late father's war. The Church and its western followers now hunt us down. You've shown great kindness towards those humans affected by it, now I humbly beg you to show the same –"
"Cut the crap!" the Belmont, apparently named Trevor, interrupted. "I don't know who you are or why you came here, but if you're trying to ask something of one of us, it needs to go through all of us."
The red-headed woman spoke up. "You do know this town was founded as a sanctuary for humans from vampires and night creatures, right?"
"Wait," Alucard put his hand up. "Let's hear her out, starting with the basics." He turned back to the vampire before him and unceremoniously motioned her to rise. "Who are you, and where are you from?"
Lenore got to her feet warily, crimson eyes darting between the three humans and the dhampir under her protective veil. Hector also stepped forward. "My name is Lady Lenore of Styria," the former queen said, "and this is Hector."
"We're… partners," Hector added, deciding he'd rather put that in the open than let the same thing happen twice. Lenore momentarily raised an eyebrow, but then nodded to herself.
"Very well," said Alucard, unphased. Such a relationship had enabled his own existence, after all. He briefly introduced his three counterparts. Lenore and Hector learned that the four of them were effectively the town's ruling council.
The six of them, four humans, a dhampir, and a vampire, seated themselves at the table. "Enough about us," Greta, the dark skinned one, said. "Again, why have you come here?"
Lenore gathered her thoughts. "After Dracula's war, almost all of the world's vampire kingdoms were left decapitated, leaderless with no succession plans in place and ripe pickings for human revolt and conquest. Our kingdom, Styria, was the last holdout, but it too has fallen, first to one of Dracula's former forgemasters, then to the Holy Roman Empire, which expelled or slaughtered all the remaining vampires as soulless abominations." She looked imploringly at Dracula's son. "Alucard, you know firsthand that this is not true. Please. We aren't safe anywhere else, and we truly mean no harm."
"Harm!?" Trevor exclaimed incredulously. "Your kind is responsible for the whole fucking war! Vampires have always treated humans like animals, Dracula decides all of us must die, and now you're playing the victim!?" He shook his head at the ridiculousness of this whole request.
"Our then-queen, Carmilla, switched sides when she realized the insanity of Dracula's plan," retorted Lenore. "She orchestrated the loss of much of his army at the battle of Braila and then had her men storm Dracula's castle itself." Her crimson eyes almost glinted with intensity beneath her veil. "Is that not good enough for you to earn refuge hear from your fellow humans?"
Trevor, Alucard, and the red-headed woman named Sypha, looked at one another, recalling their own fight in the castle. So that's why they saw two vampiric armies fighting within. But then Sypha turned back and challenged, "So why did your soldiers attack us too, and what happened to Carmilla?"
Lenore and Hector looked at each other, confused. "I beg your pardon?" All they knew was that the castle's apparent teleportation function malfunctioned, causing it to disappear.
"We used a spell to fix the castle in place and stormed it ourselves, but both groups of vampires we saw fighting in their attacked us."
Hector put two and two together. "Your forced teleportation of the castle would have broken the Styrian's chain of command. The officers present probably just saw vampire hunters and had no way of knowing you had common cause." He paused. "As for Carmilla, well… she's not here anymore, but that's another story for later."
There was a moment of silence. The forgemaster and vampire saw their questioners confer quietly. Trevor and Sypha appeared skeptical, but when Lenore saw Alucard nod to himself, the subtlest of smiles crossed her face. Hector's explanation had won Lenore her first, and most important, foothold.
Greta's accented voice brought the quiet to an end. "That's nice and all, but I'm more interested in the present. How are you going to feed? Are you going to live entirely off animals?"
Lenore answered "Yes... Mostly. When we do need human blood, we will pay you for it." Every word she uttered carried a sting of humiliation. "We still have some of our old wealth. We can make it worth your town's while."
"How many are with you?" asked Sypha.
"About forty. Among them are useful professionals: A physician, a librarian, a cartographer, stone masons, a few veterans who can help defend the town."
"Veterans?" Greta interjected. "How can we trust them? Until now, supposedly, your kind saw us all as cattle."
"Not anymore." Lenore shook her head and sighed. "Those who objected to this fate already splintered off."
Alucard turned to his counterparts, "Our population is around seven hundred, right? That ratio should be workable." Lenore saw Sypha stroke her chin thoughtfully. If only Lenore knew more about the others running this town – their backgrounds, their stories – she could personalize her arguments to their situations, instead of going in blind.
"Have you killed anyone on your way here?" interjected Trevor
Glancing at Hector, who nodded as if to remind her of her promise, Lenore truthfully answered "Yes, but only in self-defense." She rhetorically pivoted. "If you don't believe me, my sister's armored breastplate still bears grapeshot from a cannon. Not something the average human villager has lying around. "
Trevor rolled his eyes. "Yeah right." He turned around. "How can we even trust her, when there are still isolated vampires roaming around causing harm? Besides, even if she is telling the truth, how is she going to control her half-famished band of bloodsuckers while the details of this blood bank or whatever are sorted out? Vampire aren't known for their self-restraint!"
Lenore opened her mouth to retort, but then something about his words made her flinch. No, it sent her reeling in fact. It wasn't his skepticism, his use of that slur. It was…
"Isolated… vampires?" Lenore asked in an unsteady voice. She should've been happy to hear of other vampires surviving… But if they lived, independent of her machinations… That meant that Lenore's rationale for staying around on this miserable world, to save her fellow vampires… Had it all been pointless?
The Belmont gave her an incredulous look. "Yes. There are still some of your kin wandering. No longer in large numbers, but enough to raid smaller villages. Just the other month, a dozen of them attacked this place." He looked down at his weapon and added, "We're not done picking them off just yet."
Still trying to pick herself up off the rhetorical ground, Lenore managed to sputter, "I… reassure you this is the truth… W- we just want to live." For the first time in a very long while, her diplomatic mask had broken, revealing the emptiness beneath it.
Sypha's voice interrupted her ruminations. "Actually, it might be good to have some vampires that we can study," she mused thoughtfully.
Study… In Lenore's off-balance mental state, Sypha's words immediately linked themselves to memories of Morana's fate. Empty uncertainty gave way to kneejerk protective hostility. "Absolutely not!" she abruptly snarled. "I am not letting my vampires become test subjects!" No sooner than she said those words did Lenore realize her mistake. The room's mood turned threatening. Trevor and Sypha readied themselves should they need to act.
Realizing the danger, Hector jumped in. "Lenore's sister was captured and delivered to the Holy See," he explained. "We don't know exactly what happened to her, but her head was later mailed back to Styria as a threat, and captured documents during the early part of the war proved that the Vatican had conducted live experiments on vampires." Looking Sypha in the eye, he concluded, "I hope you understand the…raw feelings."
"Oh! No, not like that!" Sypha clarified. The tension began to defuse as the misunderstanding became clear. "I just meant questioning and things like that… Not dissection or torture!" Turning to Lenore, who was regaining her composure, the former seeker concluded, "Sorry about… your sister. I also know people who were persecuted by that body." Lenore simply nodded.
Hector then turned to Trevor. "As for your concern, I was actually working on a book about arrangements just like this," he explained. Hector reviewed his ideas regarding the pricing and purchasing of blood, its distribution, how to minimize potential disputes, and so forth. He even passed over a number of papers. Lenore watched almost with amazement as her partner, normally adverse to this type of high stakes talks, finished what she had started. "So yeah," He eventually concluded. "It might be a little cumbersome, but this framework should ensure fair pricing, minimize dispute, and means that the entire vampiric community can help keep one another fed. We can hammer out the specifics in the coming days, but for now, a pig or two should be enough to hold the group over. Vampires can get by on just one cup a week."
Several seconds of silence ensued as Alucard, Greta, Sypha, and Trevor processed everything they just heard. Then, the Dhampir spoke. "I'm okay with them settling here. If my people – my father's people – can abide by rules and not cause trouble, then they should be welcome here."
"I agree," said Sypha. "This could be useful."
All eyes turned to Trevor, who glanced at Sypha, snorted, and sighed, "I don't think I have a choice if Sypha is saying yes. Fine… but they better behave, mark my words, Lenore."
"I'll see to it," responded Lenore. She had little love for this Belmont, but the others seemed to hold his leash.
"Then I guess we're all on the same page," said Greta. "Lenore, you and your vampires can settle here, as long as you don't cause trouble. We'll sort out more details later." She looked back towards the rest of the castle. "Most of the living areas are already taken up by humans, but until you're able to construct your own dwellings, there should be a storage space avoided by the sun and some spare livestock to hold you over."
Lenore thanked Belmont's four de-facto leaders profusely – even, after some hesitation, the Belmont himself, who somehow found it in him to say "you're welcome." As the former vampire diplomat pulled out her distance mirror to inform her group of the results, no longer afraid of others seeing it, Hector turned to Alucard and asked, "What happened to the castle's mirrors? We tried contacting you in advance to no avail."
Alucard shrugged. "They were destroyed in the battle against Death." Seeing the Hector's confused look, he added, "Long story."
"Well, after we're settled down, we'll have a spare one you can have," Hector added. Lenore gave him as a sideways glance but said nothing as she clapped twice and watched the shards arise and show Striga in her tent.
"Lenore?" Striga said. She was nursing her wounded knee, still not healed properly. "What were the results? And who are those people?"
"They are our new leaders." Lenore answered with a combination of resignation and satisfaction. The town will let us settle. At nightfall, bring the rest of the vampires over… and tell them not to be scared of the Belmont who will likely be there watching them. As long as everyone stays in line, he won't strike."
Well, here we are. This is the first chapter actually depicting the show's main characters, and writing them was tricky, not only because of this but also because we don't see much of them as it relates to matters like... uh, this. So in the end, I inferred personality roles based on their source attributes.