The Debate
Bella
With each step she took, she got farther and farther away from Carlisle and halfway across the castle, her heart sank when the realization finally stuck her. She was too far away from Carlisle to shield him. She had just left the leader of their coven in the same room as Aro, Jane, Alec and Chelsea.
From the stiff steps he took, Bella knew it was a fact not lost to Edward either.
Her family was lead up several flights of stairs till they came to a landing with a large wooden door set to the side. Felix opened the door and stepped aside to let them in.
One by one, her family filed in and Felix retreated down the stairs, leaving the door ajar. The first thing that struck Bella was a smell. It was faint. And familiar. But only barely so. She looked around the room. It was large, and rectangular, with bookshelves covering most walls. A tall window looked out towards the street.
The room was divided into two sections. One with the bookshelves. A table stood in the near center of the room with various knicks and knacks, like old parchment type papers, books that had browned with age, pens, a dried ink bottle, strangely shaped glass vials. Two stiff wooden chairs sat on the other side of the table, their placement rather strange. They were angled a little towards each other and faced the window, rather than the table.
The other section was separated from the main one with a bookshelf and looked like an ancient lab of some sort. It certainly had the paraphernalia for that. A metal trunk stood to the corner with clothes inside and over it.
Only when Esme picked up one of the white shirts from the trunk and pressed it to her nose did Bella's eyes widen. The smell.
It was Carlisle.
The room smelled of Carlisle.
Her eyes found Edwards and he explained out loud what perhaps most of them were thinking.
"This was Carlisle's room when he was staying with the Volturi," he said. "It hasn't been touched since he left, except for being cleaned before our arrival."
Bella took in a deeper breath. The Carlisle-like scent was the most abundant smell there, but not the most recent one. She could also smell Aro. And perhaps one other vampire who had been in here. The old smell of their patriarch was soon dissipating though, being masked over by the various different scents of her family.
When Esme passed by, Bella realized what was the difference between the two scents. The Carlisle she knew…he had always been encompassed with a scent of Esme, or the powerful odor of the hospital bleach. The scent she had smelled when she first entered the room…that was how Carlisle was before he ever met Esme.
"Can you hear him?" Bella looked towards Edward. "Carlisle? I can't reach him with my shield."
Edward shook his head. "Carlisle, when he first came here and was offered a place, wanted something far away enough that he wouldn't have to listen in on during the…meal times. This room is too far."
All eyes in the room turned to Alice, who was already at work. "Aro is talking to him. Some debate that Carlisle walked out of last time. Aro has brought that up again but Carlisle is trying to change the topic. I see us roaming around the castle and the city throughout the day. They won't stop us. Aro keeps Carlisle with him though. He will call in each of us one by one, without Bella around. Chelsea will try to use her powers."
Bella pressed her lips tightly.
She needed to be there when that happened. She needed to protect her family from the unnatural sway.
Aro doesn't intend to hurt us, Bella told herself. She stepped closer to her daughter and held her hand in her own. Aro doesn't intend to hurt us.
That was the mantra she lived by for the rest of the day.
Alice and Jasper stayed behind with Esme in Carlisle's old room while Bella, Edward, Renesmee and Rosalie and Emmett decided to walk through the castle. Bella did not fail to see the strategic arrangement once again. Two people in her family had the gift to anticipate attacks. Each one stayed with one group.
During their walk through the castle, they were met with either indifference or polite cheerfulness by the Volturi guards stationed at different places. The former was expected, but the latter made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Something was going on.
They walked through the extensive library and awe-inspiring galleries. Even a room littered with jewels one time. Yet none of it inspired any spark in any of them. Instead, they kept on walking.
The receptionist greeted them politely from her workstation and Edward stopped walking when they entered a smaller, empty waiting area. Unlike other rooms, this was decked with modern furniture and had a faint smell of humans.
But neither of it was the reason Edward stopped.
"You can hear them now?" Bella asked and Edward gave a curt nod of his head, his mind focused elsewhere.
Rosalie and Emmett huddled closer.
"Is he okay?" Rosalie asked.
"Aro is trying to convince Carlisle for the co-habitation of the two covens," Edward said.
Bella thought about her family, her daughter, living in the near-constant presence of people like Jane and Alec and a low growl escaped her lips. Cohabitation was just more time for Aro to get the members he wanted to join the guard.
"Carlisle will never agree to it," Edward reassured her, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.
"We should keep moving," Emmett whispered, sensing the two Volturi standing outside the door.
And that was what they did. Rest of the day, they spent walking through the castle, at a leisurely human pace, although Edward stayed within a certain, unspoken radius. Eventually, once the sun had lowered beyond the high buildings, Rosalie and Emmett took Renesmee out into the city. Being inside the Castle was making her anxious and it would also give Emmett and Rosalie the chance to bring the wolves up to date with what was happening.
Edward and Bella found themselves huddled in one of the narrow, empty passageways. They stood still as Edward heard and processed the conversation, both spoken and unspoken between Carlisle and Aro. The two leaders, however, remained out of Bella's earshot.
Bella had no idea how long they stood there but eventually, Edward's shoulders relaxed.
"Carlisle is free for the evening. He is going to Esme right now," Edward sighed, pulling Bella closer.
While his body had relaxed, from her vicinity to him, Bella could see his eyes hadn't. They weren't relaxed.
They were angry.
"Edward," she said, tracing his smooth cheek with one hand. "Tell me, what's bothering you."
"Carlisle," he offered and Bella waited patiently.
His face scrunched up in helplessness. "Bella, I can hear what they are doing to Carlisle and I don't know how to stop them. Carlisle spent the entire day under the influence of Chelsea and Corin's powers."
"Corin?" Bella inquired. She knew of Chelsea, the vampire with the ability to influence loyalty. She had never heard of Corin though.
"Corin's gift is…contentment with one's situation," Edward explained. "But worse than that, if someone is influenced by her powers, being free of it…it creates a withdrawal like symptom. Carlisle has spent the day with Chelsea trying to severe his connection to Esme and Corin, with him being okay with that. It didn't work, but it has left him drained, and dependent. He has spent the day fighting something worse than a battle."
Bella's heart went out to the patriarch of the house and if she paid attention, she could hear his footsteps trudging across the floor somewhere too. But the anger in Edward's eyes were still blazing. She looked at him, "Esme?"
She could see the resistance, the inner dialogue that went in his head before his shoulders finally slumped and his face contorted with grief and anger. He let out a deep exhale before he made up his mind.
"Bella, when Carlisle was here last, Aro was fascinated by him. Not just his extraordinary control and morals. But also him." Edward's eyes begged her to understand what he was saying without him having to elaborate everything and her eyes widened in surprise.
"Aro was in love with Carlisle?" Bella whispered and despite himself Edward barked out a laugh.
"Love? Certainly not," Edward said. "I don't think Aro is capable of loving anything other than power. No, he was interested in Carlisle. He was fascinated by him, intrigued by his intellect, his desire to learn. He saw himself in Carlisle. The determination, the control, it reminded him of himself. Except that Aro sought power, and Carlisle, a life of morals."
The more Edward spoke, the more Bella frowned. And as Edward continued, Bella could see the discomfort in Edward's voice. "Aro found Carlisle very…stimulating. He was born in a time and place where it was normal. Carlisle on the other hand, was raised by a pastor who regularly burnt innocents under pretense of God's bidding. By the time Carlisle had visited Volterra, he had perused the Bible himself enough that his opinion on such a relationship had changed. But his orientation hadn't. Neither had his belief in the sanctity of marriage. Carlisle's refusal to take things forward with Aro had frustrated him to no end, especially during their last debate regarding the subjectiveness of love, lust and marriage. Aro had ordered Chelsea to sway Carlisle into accepting his advances. Carlisle fought against it and left Volterra for good that night."
Edward leaned back against the wall, sighing. He closed his eyes.
"He wants you, me and Alice to join the guards," Edward said and Bella stepped closer to Edward, rubbing his folded arms in the hopes of offering whatever comfort she could. "He'll let Jasper join too, for Alice's sake. He wants to study Renesmee. He is willing to find a place in the guards for Emmett too and Rosalie to stay with him. And he wants Carlisle, obviously."
Bella felt the muscles under his hand tighten and Edward finally spat out the reason behind his anger. "But Aro plans on getting Esme killed."