Let the Symphony last for Eternity
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta: Erin_Carde
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
"Something is wrong... The castle's gone mad hasn't it?" Maria asked, as her doves rested upon her, one on her shoulder, one on her wrist. It was this dove that she was stroking gently as she walked along the cave floor. "Seems odd, walk through a door in the clock tower and here I am, deep underground."
The imbalance of the Castle unnerved both her and her animal partners, causing the doves cooing to softly echo into the caves they found themselves in. She couldn't fathom how this was even happening as she worked her way down further into the caves. She needed to find Richter, yet how was she going to do that if the Castle was so out of sync with the rest of the world? It was one thing to walk into a castle that looked a 'little' off from how she remembered things. It was another thing entirely to have a castle that didn't seem to know which way was 'up'.
If it had been only the clock tower, Maria wouldn't have minded as much, if at all. A simple trick door is nothing to get worried over after all. But from the moment she had entered the Castle, it was as though 'every' single door lead to a completely different part of the castle. Looking out the windows only confirmed it, having been shown completely different directions each time. Sometimes the moon was to the right, other times the left, sometimes she couldn't even 'see' it because it was on the other side of the castle. Perhaps if the castle radiated Dracula's presence like it normally did, like it 'always' did, than there wouldn't have been a problem.
But the Castle itself was eerily dead inside, the monsters she expected to find were either passive or non existent. She had seen monsters that had human like physical builds cleaning, mending the castle, or they had been sleeping, idle, inattentive to Maria's presence. In some places she felt as though she wasn't even visible to the monsters, as though they ignored her for whatever reason. Her animals didn't like the undead, they defied the laws of nature causing anxiety within them. Maria just didn't like the current situation. This 'had' to be Dracula's castle, so why did the place feel like it was sleeping? Where was the sense of danger that normally overwhelmed a person?
She walked along, blind to the surroundings once she gave a cursor glance to ensure her safety as she passed by. No Medusa Heads in the Clock Tower, nesting Harpies, simply put; the Castle was completely baffling to her mind. She was just shy of walking up to a monster, waving her arms and demanding to be attacked. Which would be her explanation to her elation upon hearing other voices in the distance. Even her doves seemed happier as they flew off and down deeper into the cave she was in, their shadows being cast along the walls from the lit lanterns. She jumped down, the soft snapping of the ribbons in her hair distorting any sound she may have heard otherwise.
While she liked this outfit, it just was a poor vampire hunting outfit all together. Not enough ribbon to even bind up her hair. Far more leg and cleavage showing than she was willing to tolerate given the surroundings. But that was a thought put on the shelf as she caught sight of her doves, hovering in the air by wing flaps and cooing at what was before them. Two, no three women were before her across the span of the cave. One stood in a frilled dress of pink with a solid blue high collar, revealing bust line and her hair up in an elaborate style. The blue wasn't just in the collar, but also the trim and the forearm length gloves she wore. Oh and she had a rapier in her hand with a look of business on her face. Important to note that.
Suddenly Maria didn't feel so bad, here was another woman stuck in the castle of Dracula, poorly dressed for this venture.
But beyond her, there was another pair of women, one was clearly in pain, and that pain is what got Maria's priority. Though the youngest of the three as it turned out, the injured one was clearly going to school. While the third woman looked to be twins with the one holding the sword. Yet unlike the one with the sword she dressed more conservatively, in muted colors of cold gray blue mixtures.
"Who are you?" The one with the sword took charge immediately, prepared to defend the other girls. But the doves were not upset by the presence of these strangers, so Maria could only guess they were human, and not evil. It also helped that her two doves returned to her and showed no sign of anxiety towards the trio of women.
"My name is Maria Renard, I'm the sister in law of Richter Belmont," Maria answered confidently, granted she was Anette's adopted sister... But that was a negligible fact and right now, these people were honest so said her friends. So right then the importance was in taking care of the wounded girl who was reading something. Magic, Richter's grandfather was skilled in magic so Maria had come to recognize a few signs. Like the entranced way the girl seemed look at the book in her lap, reading despite her grave injuries.
"Richter Belmont is dead. He died decades ago, no one even knows when or how," the woman pointed out, her hand on the sword's hilt tightening.
But the statement left Maria stunned as she stood there, all but gaping at the accusation, "I assure you he is most certainly not! He wasn't even alive decades ago!"
"The history never stated what happened to him. After events involving the Castle, the clan itself seemed to disappear from the world," the girl who had been in a trance spoke suddenly to them. Her voice was a tired, dried reedy voice sapped of strength due to her ordeal. "The Morris clan was given the Whip for safe keeping while the Belmonts stayed in hiding."
"No, you're lying! Richter wouldn't hide the clan from the world! He's been kidnapped, which is why I'm here! I need to find him!" Maria couldn't stop the panic that was being seeded into her voice from growing. Gone? No, these people had to be wrong.
"You speak of the Belmont in the present tense, where as for us, it is the past..." the other woman noted, collected and uninjured, she began to stand up as well.
"Who are you people? How dare you say that Richter is dead and the clan missing!"
"We dare for it is the truth, you say that you are 'Maria Renard', there was such a woman in the history of the Belmont clan. As for ourselves, my name is Loretta LeCarde, this is my elder sister Stella LeCarde, and the young lady with us is Charlotte Aulin, a member of the Belnades clan. Since we are all introduced, perhaps the most important question at the moment is: what year is this?"
It was in the moment when Maria automatically blurted out '1798' while Stella announced '1945' that they got a scope of the situation.
"Castle, you've outdone yourself," Maria snarked quietly, as she stood there trying to grasp what she just heard. Then she attempted to get a hold of the situation again, "so you're saying that outside it is 1945, while it was 1798 when I entered it?"
There was a long pause after that remark, followed by Charlotte's less in pained voice, "that's a new one for the history books."
"So you entered this castle of your own free will?" Stella asked, her hand resting on her hip and the most baffled and mildly irritated expression on her face.
"At least she entered, I woke up on the floor," Charlotte commented aloud her voice still a little dreamy from the blood loss.
"We, as well, woke up in another part of this cav..." Loretta suddenly broke off as something clicked between the twins.
"Castle? 'The' Castle? Are you saying that this is the Castle of Dracula?" Stella looked about in growing disbelief, at least now Maria wasn't alone in that feeling. "Where are the monsters? The seemingly all consuming hate and evil that permeated?"
"Would explain the spiked floor," Charlotte quipped into the conversation as she slowly began climbing to her feet.
"Yes, it would that..." Loretta agreed as her voice eased back into her normal subdued tone.
"I... I don't know... I was looking for Richter, who has gone missing, when the Castle seemingly materialized before me. I thought Richter might have come here to investigate and it's..." Maria stopped for a moment in her dialog, pressing a hand to her head. While her two doves nestled down on either shoulder, cooing softly to each other. "I go through any set of doors and I find myself in a completely new location. It wasn't all that long ago that I traveled through this Castle aiding Richter. Now... I went from being in the clock tower to here just by taking a door."
"So at this moment we know, that if we take any door we come across, the odds are that we will not end up in the proper room. Rather we will be teleported to a different location in this castle. Further more; we can no longer say we know for a fact what point in time itself that we are in," Loretta spoke up as she allowed Charlotte to lean against her. Until the young witch regained her strength, Loretta took over as the voice of logical reason for the girls.
"Your birds, can't they tell anything? Animals are supposed to be more aware of their surroundings than humans," Stella inquired, observing the doves from her position.
"No, each room has upset them, though at the time I couldn't understand why. But now I think I know, if I've been warped from one wing to another wing higher up and lower down each time... They don't have enough time or visual cues outside to get their barrings. I must find Richter, he would be able to help us," Maria replied, lifting a hand up so the doves could land on it. Before she introduced the pair to the women she just met. The doves still did not react badly towards the women, cementing Maria's inner feeling that these people weren't evil.
"So first we need to find a door that leads out of here," Charlotte noted looking about, though not behind her.
"There's one up above, and more then likely that door will take us somewhere completely different," Maria suggested, with a gesture from where she had come.
"I... I can't make that yet..." Charlotte noted, as she stood there.
"Of course you can, we can carry you up there easily," Stella replied simply with a shrug. "Come, we need to get to the bottom of this. If this is the Castle, we can not allow for Jonathan to use Vampire Killer."
"Why not? I'm going to assume this Jonathan person is from your time, but why shouldn't he wield it? Richter told me that once the whip is passed down it belongs to that person," Maria inquired. After all, if these three women were not evil, even one was related to the Belnadas, then she would assume this guy a Belmont. So why not use the whip?
"He is not directly of the Belmont clan, when Richter disappeared the Whip was left with the Morris clan. Though the Morris family is an offshoot of the Belmont clan they are not meant to wield the whip. His father died because he over used it, his wounds refusing to heal and eventually death overtook him," Stella began, followed up by her sister.
"We of the LeCarde family hold the duty of safeguarding the whip, our power allows for the whip to be sealed, made useless. Therefore it can be carried by the Morris clan, though it can not work against the undead as it does in the hands of a Belmont. But we also are capable of unsealing the whip's power when the world is in dire need. If Jonathan is put back into the Castle, forced to face Dracula again alone, he may rely on the Whip."
"And it has been unsealed, I never heard of this from Richter, though I suppose it's because it's never been handed over. But I see your point, if he's here, or not we need to get you ladies back home soon," Maria nodded as she spoke. But how was Stella and Loretta going to help Charlotte up the long drops? Not to mention Stella's dress.
"Do you think it's possible that he was brought here?" Charlotte asked as she leaned against Loretta as they moved.
"It's possible, the Castle could be just resetting rooms he's been in, or the strange calm that seems to have taken over has something to do with it. If he has nothing to fight, then there's nothing to damage... But, say, I have a question," Maria stopped walking and turned back to the trio. "If you're from the future, do you know how I found Richter again?"
"No, only that he disappeared. The Morris clan is part of the remains of the Belmont clan. We don't even know who or where the direct descendant is, only that he will return to claim the whip when the time is right."
Maria didn't reply, the answer disturbed her in that perhaps she wouldn't find Richter? That he would just up and leave, abandoning Annette and the clan? But no, he took the clan with him, so what happened? What would happen in the Castle, if Richter was here?
"Something happened, but don't think so hard on it Ms. Renard, we know that he didn't disappear in the Castle. Because the Belmont clan is destined to have a final battle against Dracula in 1999AD. So somehow this will be resolved," Charlotte spoke up, trying to encourage Maria.
"Oh you don't have to call me 'Ms. Renard', Maria is just fine Charlotte," Maria looked back at the young witch. Yet suddenly the cave seemed a little darker then before, the shadows longer upon the ground. "Wait did anyone else notice anything?"
"Yes, I think perhaps, one of the lanterns have died out," Stella noticed, the grip on her rapier tightening.
"Wait- look!" Loretta grabbed Maria and pulled the woman back with her. While off in the distance two hovering flames seemed to float steadily towards them. After a bit of watching they saw a squat old man with a lantern walking along with a floating Imp by his side.
"Light's gone out, best to be fixin' that 'fore the master shows up," the old man told the Imp. The Imp seemed to reply in some form of gibberish before floating up and returning after a bit with what looked to be a dark lantern. The girls exchanged glances as the man opened the gate to the lantern, replaced the melted candle, then lit it using his own lantern.
As the pair of monsters went on their way the girls stepped back out to where they had been.
"That's what's been happening through out the Castle. I've been in rooms filled with monsters just doing stuff like that. Either they're cleaning, fixing, or just roaming about, but they don't seem to even notice me. I was about ready to start shouting to get their attention because it's just..." Maria shivered as she spoke.
"It's like we're not even here, and the Castle is setting up... Did you hear what he said?" Charlotte replied in agreement towards the creepiness.
"How he implied the Master was going to show up? Yes, perhaps Dracula has not awaken yet and the castle is preparing for it," Loretta acknowledged with a worried frown.
"But Maria's age is wrong for it, she was younger when the Castle arrived with Dracula, if she's returned... There is simply too much important information I don't have," Charlotte lamented as she stood there.
"Perhaps it's not Dracula, therefore the monsters are reacting differently? What if Brauner wasn't the first to steal the castle from Dracula?" Stella suggested as they approached the newly relit area.
"Wait- someone- someone 'stole' this castle from Dracula?" Maria asked in amazement, turning to face the girls.
"Yes, by sealing Dracula up in the Throne room, Brauner took over the Castle... or at the very least was able to live in it without obeying Dracula." Loretta explained, while she and her sister both got on either side of Charlotte, then flew up to the next level of the cave. Holding the witch between them as they went aloft. Maria was surprised to see the two sisters could actually fly, but not to be outdone began leaping up after them and landing next to them.
"I never thought a vampire would betray Dracula."
"He blamed Dracula's constant defeats at the hands of the Belmonts as the reason why his daughters died. He- wasn't well in the head..." Charlotte explained, not wanting to bring up with Brauner did to the LeCarde sisters. With that the conversation slowly died, the sisters concentrating on helping Charlotte get up towards the door. Having to carry another body causing a quicker drain on their magic, while Maria was left pondering what happened to Richter.
It wasn't until they reached the seemingly innocent door that they discovered what Maria meant. While Stella supported Charlotte's body weight, the young witch opened the door and the pair stepped into the next room. Only to have a hard wind push the other two away as the door slammed shut behind them.
"Sister!" Loretta cried out, flinging open the door to race after her twin, ignoring Maria's cry for her to wait. A hand grasping her arm was ignored as she dashed through into...