Episode I: Knowledge

Act IV: Divide

Disclaimer: I don't own Bloodborne, this is just a Fanfiction.

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Scene 1

"Yes... yes he is still in his office."

Provost Willem listened to the muffled voice of Runesmith Caryll speak to someone, presumably asking about him.

I have a good idea who that is, he thought.

Things had built up a considerable amount of pressure not just on him but on the glorious institute he headed and the growing circle that threatened to end his beloved investigation.

"Everything has built to this apex," he thought to himself as he thumbed his way through yet another book before sighing dramatically as he dropped it to the ground with the countless others he had sifted through. "There is nothing I can do to do stop this..."

The oak door to his chambers knocked quite heavily; shockingly enough that Willem snapped his head 'round to the door, eyes widened. The door creaked open ominously into the darkened chamber and a woman's head poked through.

"Master Provost... Sir Laurence is here to see you."

Willem's eyes re-set on their narrowed course, a hardened frown re-adorning his older expression.

"W-What should I do?" Caryll asked with a light wince, as if unsure. "Things are getting frantic out there-"

"Send him in." Willem suddenly interrupted but with a soft and final tone of voice, his eyes telling a strange kind of sadness. The woman nodded before re-shutting the door behind her as she left it.

Willem turned very briefly before finally dropping himself back into his favourite rocking chair, overlooking the large bookcase and the tomes all strewn messily around his office.

He waited, listening to Caryll's muffled voice mix with, presumably Laurence's. He steeled his nerves as he waited and listened to his oak door knock a second time, this time expecting it.

The knocker didn't wait for him to speak before entering.

"Master Willem..."

Laurence's voice echoed on throughout the chamber as he stepped through, his footsteps echoing with his words. Willem tried not to let his face twitch in response but couldn't help it, even if it was out of frame from Laurence's gaze.

"I've... come to bid you farewell." Laurence's soft but awkward tone of voice spoke. Willem's senses tensed, almost as if fearing and expecting these words.

A strange mix of great anger and sadness washed over him as he opened his mouth to respond.

"Oh, I know, I know... you think now to betray me." He emphasised each word with a hardened sharp of his tongue, lightly bobbing his beloved ceremonial rod upon his lap. A sad kind of silence descended down upon the once tight-knit pair of scholars, as if to cry out for their now dying friendship.

"No... but you will never listen," Laurence replied just as softly but with his own sense of strong emphasis. "I tell you... Sensei Willem... I will not forget our adage."

"Hmph...," Willem murmured out through the back of his throat before rocking backward as he re-opened his mouth, as if to voice the very precept of which the former lecturer spoke. "... We are born of the blood, made men of the blood, undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open..."

His words, though spoken quietly, echoed deeply within the chamber. Finally, he continued and Laurence spoke with him, as if knowing his next words.

"Fear... the Old Blood."

A strange kind of comfortable silence descended down upon the most intelligent men of Yharnam before, finally, Laurence's voice cut through the comfortable lull with his charismatic baritone.

"I... must take my leave."

The quiet sound of his footsteps dissolved away into the darkness along with the echoing sound of his chamber's oak door. It reverberated quietly and yet, for the listening Willem, its sound was harsh as if the ending to a much loved tome.

Willem's eyes very quietly shut and his lower lip trembled as he re-opened his mouth, giving speech to his thoughts. "By the gods...," he murmured on out. "Fear it... Laurence..."

BANG

The listening Willem widened his eyes beneath the eye-guard he now wore, the sound of a gunshot echoing past his locked Lunarium door.

Combat, just inside my abandoned abode, he thought.

"I can do nothing to help."

The way I am now, with these eyes...

I can barely take care of myself.

The harsh sound of flesh being ripped through made the listening Willem wince beneath his eye-guard; his heart wrenched at the possibility of the last member of the Choir, besides himself, being brutally killed.

I'm so sorry Yurie, he thought.

This is all my fault.

The horrifying sound of quietened steps echoed past his locked door, growing louder with each step. He shut every eye that grew within his body as he sat in his favourite rocking chair, overlooking the calm silvery moon in his beloved lookout.

CLICK

The door behind him finally gave way to the sound of a key being inserted into its lock; all of Willem's senses tensed.

The end for the Byrgenwerth Scholars was finally at hand, he thought.

The door creaked on open and a few steps made him aware of the person's eerie presence.

Somehow, even in spite of all the years between them, Willem knew exactly who it was that intruded in his mansion and killed his only remaining companion.

"Sensei Willem...," the owner's voice finally spoke in a greeting, his low-toned Yharnam-refined accent echoing forward as he approached the shut-eyed Provost. "Long time no see."