Let the Symphony Last for Eternity

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: Wow how did I go through a WHOLE chapter spelling Stella's name wrong? Oi. Well this is fixed...

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"This... is simply impossible," was all Stella could really say.

Charlotte was resting against her, getting her strength back from her grueling experience. The moment that Maria opened the door Loretta had grabbed a hold of Maria and the pair had disappeared. But Stella had panicked at the loss of her twin sister and lunged forward, causing Charlotte to grab on to her and get sucked into another part of the Castle. At this point the young Witch realized that Stella didn't really grasp magic as the swordswoman grabbed the door and tried again. Only to be, strangely enough, ripped back into where they had started from. The poor girl had yet to slacken her grip on the stronger sword wielder.

But even so, it was clear in the way Stella looked about the dark passage they were in that something was wrong. Her sister and Maria were missing, Charlotte was still with her, but the hallway they stood in was the same exact hallway that Stella herself traveled through. Her sister should have been in this hallway considering what the door just did. If this part of the Castle was a prison at any rate.

"The doors, they've become warps," Charlotte noted from where she stood. The blood loss induced fatigue still weighed against the honey blond. Making it more difficult to lift up her head from where it had been resting against Stella's shoulder. She looked about the cavern they were in, the occasional flames that lit the gloom. What would they do now? Whatever it was, she couldn't just stay latched on to Stella, any sign of weakness had to be avoided. This was still the castle of Count Dracula, the cursed castle with monsters, even if said monsters were acting a bit abnormal.

"If that is the case than there is no telling where my sister and Maria are," Stella noted, as she turned back to the door they just passed out of. But even as they stood there, side by side and pondering over the current situation, the door opened again. But while the new person was a woman, she was unlike either the quiet Loretta or the golden tressed Maria.

The woman was pale, long of limbs with an eerie, lifeless quality to her presence. Her eyes held nothing, cold, emotionless even the dead held signs in their eyes of an emotion. Her clothes were a dark blue gown with slits that rose up to her hip bone, and a chest plate of russet brown and brass colored trim. The boots looked to be made with the same designs as the chest plate, reaching just above the knees.

The gown was sleeveless, but came with arm sheaths of the same material as the dress with a gold trim. With long black hair that spilled down her back haloed by the lights of a fire from beyond, reflected off of numerous gears. The Clock Tower.

While the door slammed shut behind this newcomer, said woman didn't react at all with surprise. Instead she seemed to be studying the pair with a cool glance, not saying a word. Odd.

"Hello?" Charlotte spoke first, unsure if the woman could hear to begin with or if she was even alive.

"Who are you." Not a question, rather a statement. As though they were expected to fill out the answer like one filled out a form. More like a guard at a castle, unconcerned about the person and focused only on their threat level. Or perhaps this person didn't know any other way to make small talk. Regardless...

"I am Stella LeCarde, and this is Charlotte Aulin," Stella took lead with that one, gesturing with a flick of the wrist towards Charlotte. "Who might you be?"

"My name is 'Shanoa', are you better informed of the situation here? I have been traveling and been unable to make any clear connection to this place's structure."

Both Stella and Charlotte had to blink at that statement, there was clearly something wrong with this woman. Her tone and outward personality was clearly lacking any living warmth to it. She wasn't a monster, they both could tell that right off the bat, yet she had less personality than some of them. But what they saw behind her just before the door slammed shut was just as disconcerting.

"I think it may have something to do with the doors of the castle," Charlotte theorized as she stood there. The two women with her turning to give her their full attention. "I'm not sure yet, I'd have to do some tests. The first being," with that she turned her attention to Shanoa and asked, "how did you get in the castle?"

"I awoke in what looked to be a church, until I saw the paintings with skeletal angels as the theme."

"I awoke in a room full of the aged bones of the dead, my sister awoke in a room near mine," Stella added, turning her head towards her current companion.

"The stone walls around us is very familiar to the stone walls around me when I woke up. So by chance this maybe a spot in the same tunnel. Regardless we've been brought back to the same part of the grounds as when we left."

Stella and Shanoa both turned their own attention back to the door that Shanoa had just stepped out of. "We weren't in physical contact with Loretta and Maria when we stepped through the door. Now who knows where they are, and we're here, not only that, but you've arrived here as well. But that aside, why would a clock tower be connected to an underground location?" Charlotte theorized aloud.

"You're suggesting that this whole structure is randomly teleporting people into its structure, and using the doors themselves as gateways to other locations in the same main structure?" Stella inquired, a frown forming on her lips. If that was the case they were in a great deal more trouble than she first estimated.

"Thus this 'is' the castle of Dracula. His powers seem to have become even more devious," Shanoa added, casting a glance around the area.

But Charlotte only shook her head, "we think this 'is' the castle of Dracula. However; Maria said she had just been in the clock tower, and now you've stepped through a door that has clearly been open to the clock tower. But we just took that door and what I saw was a room with a Serpent's head, only you appeared with the Clock Tower behind you."

"You took a door and wound up here, yet you met someone who was just in the clock tower and ended up meeting up with you when the door they took brought them here, correct?" Shanoa asked, seeking clarification because the castle was officially loopy. When the girls nodded their heads, she turned her back to them, exposing a large open space uncovered of armor or cloth. As well as a large ornate circle on her flesh. Though it was mostly visible in the brief moment when she turned around to face the door she had just stepped out of. "Then in that case this door shall either return us to the Clock tower or somewhere else."

With that Shanoa reached out, grabbing the doorknob and pulling it open, even amid cries of 'wait' and the sensation of two hands falling on either of her shoulders.

\\\ Clock tower \\\

Only to find herself, with Charlotte and Stella in tow, back in the clock tower. It was enough to give anyone pause, standing beneath and beside gears both big and small. Surrounded by machines that worked to keep time measured for those around it. Like the beat of a heart, there was a steady sound of clicks and whirls sounds so loud that it cause the clock tower not to be around any normal living area. But if that were the case, why couldn't she hear the sound of the clock tower on the other side of the door?

If this was in fact a normal door, leading to and from the same location, how could Shanoa not hear the sounds of a room she had just been in? She knew what the clock tower sounded like, so why the lack of sound on the other side of a single door?

Charlotte had bumped into Shanoa with less grace, then Stella into her, but righted herself fair quick enough. Looking around the new room, it was obvious that this was, in fact, the clock tower. A rather neat looking one, with the occasional shows of polish that someone must have applied to in an effort to make the place presentable. After all the Master was returning right? Couldn't afford to make the place look ill taken care of. Above them there was a roosting harpy, the only other sign of life currently inside the tower aside from themselves.

While Stella had landed with the grace of a woman who had cheated, thus floated, into the room. All that mattered to her was that Loretta was not in this room either, but outside of the warp like effect of arrival into this room... It seemed as though their budding theory was incorrect, but that was a type of reassurance unto itself. At least logic 'did' exist inside the castle still. So long as some logic existed, hopefully her sister would be safe, perhaps she was with Maria. While Stella wasn't exactly the most knowledgeable about the lore for the Belmont Clan, she did know of Maria. Just enough to know the woman was a nature based vampire hunter, using animals and mythical beasts for her aid.

But suddenly Shanoa seemed to have decided on a course of action for herself, turning abruptly she reached for the door they had just exited out of, with both Charlotte and Stella reaching out to stop her, yet again.

\\\ Royal Chapel \\\

"Well... that was kinda expected, but not really."

In that instant when they had gotten a hold of Shanoa, she had opened the door again, ripping them away from the clock tower, into here. Which proved to be a very large room, before a set of stairs, that led downward. But resting on those stairs was a very large spike ball, and from what they could see, a few bone pillars to boot.

"Perhaps it's just that the door in question leads out to different areas," Charlotte suggested, her expression thoughtful.

The big difference in the Royal Chapel was a difference normally found in one other location, which was the Master Chambers itself. That difference was neatness itself, while a fine level of dust, dried blood, or the errant bone or strip of cloth could be found just about anywhere else. It was in these two locations themselves, that always maintained a neatness to them. The carpets were clearly cleaned regularly, little to no dust could be found along any surface. While it may have been strange for Dracula to have a place of holy worship in his home, what ever the reason must have been dear to him. Then again he 'did' have a human wife, if he loved a human 'that' much, perhaps he thought to entertain her by putting the chapel in the castle?

"Perhaps we are not the only ones in the castle. Despite the random possibility given by the very nature of the doors, there must be others lost in here as well," Shanoa pointed out, before promptly making for the steep stairway leading downward.

"Wait! Shanoa where are you going?" Charlotte asked, having regained enough strength to keep up with the odd lady.

"There were others that you were with, we should make haste in finding them. When one can not trust a door to lead to the proper location, there is no telling what the castle would have done with them," the stranger remarked. But amid her graceful leaps her hair floated among the air currents enough to show the remaining pair a circle of arcane marks on her upper back. Symbols that the girls could easily recognize as marks of arcane power, but inscrutable at this distance.

But Shanoa had a point, what if a door just decided to drop someone in the middle of that room of spikes? What if the monsters suddenly turned violent on a lone traveler? That they had not been dangerous because the girls had been in a group? But, again, Shanoa seemed to be alone and had been unbothered by the monsters.

\\\Shanoa\\\

When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the ceiling above her, but a ceiling she didn't recognize. She had fallen asleep in an inn on her travels, so how did she end up here? Like the grand churches she had heard about, the ceiling depicted scenes of heaven, with angels flying into eternity. Stars and clouds held a gray tint to lessen their natural beauty, the sky around it was soft tones of royal blue.

Yet Shanoa missed all that sense of beauty, since beauty was defined by memories of what gave a sense of safety, or danger. All she understood was that she wasn't where she was when she went to sleep. That alone indicated danger, for which she got up from the ground and gave the surrounding area a more thorough search. Revealing paintings that showed winged skeletons and humans being killed, while the ceiling might have been heavenly, the walls most certainly were 'not'. She wandered the hallways alone, until she came upon a door one that looked simple enough. There were no monsters nor evil creatures around, the building felt so empty, soulless in fact...