Let the Symphony last for Eternity
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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They had spent a rather odd amount of time in the clock tower just sitting there. Loretta looked completely composed and patient, after informing Maria that she wasn't leaving the tower until her sister arrived. And why did the younger LeCarde insist that her sister was going to find them despite the castle's teleporting trick?
"There are only so many places that the castle can send a person, and Stella is quite a forceful personality. She won't sit still, so I know it to be better to just sit and wait for her arrival rather then wasting the energy to search for her."
It made sense when Maria looked at it from that perspective, and unlike herself, Loretta knew two of the other girls in the group. "Well, it doesn't seem like there's anything really to do..." she reasoned out loud before she made a seat for herself by the ice witch.
"If I may ask, how did you get dragged into the castle? Not just here, but as a hunter?" Loretta asked, her eyes focused straight ahead. The girl was so calm and collected that it was almost unnatural, too much like ice in stillness. Maria turned her head to observe her fellow hunter for a moment before looking away towards the wall before them.
"The Dark Priest was looking for two things, victims in his rituals to bring back Dracula and hostages to keep the Belmont Clan at bay. He murdered my parents and dragged me and a small group of women to this castle. It was the first time I met Annette, my family didn't let me socialize with the lower class," her voice turned soft and lost to the memories. "But at that time I was just orphaned and she took me in distracting me with stories of her lover, I never believed Dracula would return. I had heard stories of him of course, but I thought that the previous hunter had destroyed him. Shaft apparently sensed my abilities and was going to sacrifice me to Dracula."
Loretta turned her head to look at Maria as the blond was now looking higher up into the clock tower. The memories of those events clearly playing on the blond hunters' face, "Annette was held prisoner here in the clock tower. I wasn't taken any deeper into the castle but a few rooms so Shaft could work his dark magic quickly. I blacked out at his words, perhaps as an attempt at self preservation, but when I woke up it was with Richter looking down at me asking if I was alright," Maria voice warmed at the memory.
"I didn't want to be a victim, nor did I want someone else dictating what I could do. I had power to protect myself and the only family I had left, so I decided to fight. Not that Richter believed in a 'little girl'. My family is only distantly related to the Belmont Clan," Maria explained as she stood up, hugging herself slightly as she thought back on those days when she lost her parents. "But that blood sustains us, anyone who is either of holy or dark powers can survive here. The Castle would turn anyone else into something, it almost got Annette."
"Which would explain the story of Grant," Loretta acknowledged with a nod. "Charlotte is also of the blood, also distant."
Maria got up and walked along the small space they had to move, even if the castle was being nice, it didn't remove all the spikes in the room. She didn't expect Loretta to speak much, the girl was just so unnaturally quiet, then again. Stella probably made up for that and they balanced each other out because of it.
"Our father was a vampire hunter, not by design or birth, rather because a vampire killed his first wife."
Maria turned her head in surprise, looking over and down at where the young woman still sat. Loretta didn't turn to face her, but she didn't stop her narrative. "Father was a friend of the Morris clan, another offshoot of the Belmont Clan, when his wife was murdered he joined the hunt. Then, years later, another vampire found a way to bring back the Castle and seal Dracula inside the Master Chambers. Then he murdered our father and turned my sister and I into vampires believing him to be our father instead."
Maria stared at the back of Loretta's head, her eyes filled with disbelief and sympathy. She walked over to Loretta, and resumed sitting so that all her focus was on the LeCarde sister.
"We had only just started to talk about our futures, as we are connected to the Morris clan. I would be lying if I were to say that we don't need our father despite being hunters ourselves. We fully intended our father meeting our prospective lovers, of being by our sides when we got married. Mother did not survive the war after all, father was all we had left. Now..." Loretta's voice drifted into silence like snow in the wind. She looked down at her hands and her fingers curled up into fists.
"I'm sorry to hear that Loretta, I know your pain," Maria replied, placing her hand on Loretta's shoulder while her doves landed on Maria's shoulder.
"No, I'm serious, I heard Jonathan's voice! He's here in the Castle!" Charlotte was hotly protesting something above them before suddenly blustering into a, "no fair! Why do you get wings and you get to float all over the place?! I have to turn into an owl just to fly!"
"Good thing I don't gamble," Maria remark with a grin as she looked up to see Stella and Shanoa moving about in the upper level of the tower room. "Hey! We're down here!" she waved as the pair began their descent.
"Sister!" Loretta called out as well standing up and floating herself up to join her twin.
"You both are ok, that's great!" Charlotte called out before making a series of jumps to join the Maria.
"And you are all together," Loretta noted as she and her sister joined the group gathering on a rotating gear.
"Yes, we just have to be in physical contact with each other." Stella answered for the trio as Shanoa touched down, sending away her dark wings.
"However; we've discovered a vampire who has managed to turn a Belmont," Shanoa reported while the girls went round and around.
"What? That can't be!" Maria replied both shocked and horrified at the thought.
"It looks like it's Juste, but isn't he Richter Belmont's grandfather? I can understand if it was Richter, we never have found out why he disappeared..." Charlotte began only to be interrupted by Maria.
"What? What do you mean he 'disappeared'?" Maria's voice carried her alarm as her doves took flight. "That's why I left home, you can't possibly be saying that he never returned!"
"No, there was a brief time when he 'did' go missing. But after his return he went into parts unknown. No one knows what happened to Richter Belmont five years after he defeated Dracula. However; before his departure he left the Vampire Killer in the hands of the Morris clan, with the LeCarde clan serving as support," Loretta explained patiently.
"This is the first time I've met other clans linked to the Belmont. The Order I served was created on the grounds of finding a way to defeat Dracula while the Belmont clan was in absence. We knew nothing of the Morris clan or the LeCarde clan. We did what we could, despite our founder being a traitor seeking to bring back Dracula," Shanoa added gaining the attention of the group.
"So, Richter defeated Dracula, disappeared for five years, then when he returned he just up and moved everyone?" Charlotte theorized out loud, "only there's never been stories of any other Belmont being made into a vampire. Mind controlled; yes, vampire no, so which leaves us with a question of..."
"'Of'?" Stella inquired hovering her way over to a stationary gear.
"Time flows like a river, each of us travels on that river like a little boat, so what happens if someone finds a way to take one of those boats and move them? Placing people on different parts of the same river can have serious consequences."
"Do you still have Sanctuary?" Stella asked quietly, watching Charlotte with a thoughtful gaze, the honey blond nodded so Stella relaxed. "So long as you have that, and we can find Juste, we can help him no matter how much the enemy may try to change things."
"Though when you think of it that way, this is getting quite scary inside the castle, people meeting who never should," Maria noted as she walked along. Her doves rose up in a flutter at the distant click of the door opening.
Below them was a new presence, the girls all leaning over the edge of the gears to see who the new comer was. A cowboy style hat hid the face, but not the blond hair that spilled out from around the back of it. There were straps that held small vials of liquid a plain looking spear resting in his hand, but it was when he looked up at the sound of the girls that got Stella's attention.
"Father!"
Before anyone could stop her, Stella glided herself away from the gear and made a rapid descent towards the bottom of the room. Loretta was on her heels as the rest of the girls joined, while the stranger at the bottom of the room looked up in wonderment. Maria couldn't help but feel a wave of sympathy as she followed, having learned a bit about the girls past.
"Father, don't you recognize us?" Stella reached for the hunter only to have Loretta grab her hands and pull her away. "Loretta! What are you doing? Father is here!"
"No, father is gone! Sister please," Loretta's normally stoic voice softened as she pulled her sister away from the man.
Charlotte was the next to land, with Maria and Shanoa right behind her, and the honey blond could see that this 'was' Eric LeCarde. But he looked, too, young to be the father of the twins, which could only have meant...
"I'll help Loretta, please speak to him for us," Maria instructed Charlotte as she moved past them to help Loretta with a now crying Stella.
"Ah, you're Eric LeCarde correct?" Charlotte asked, brushing a careless hand over one of the numerous blood stains on her clothes. This was going to get touchy, Eric before he became a father? Would this alter the future, as he would be interacting with daughters from a woman who he probably didn't even know yet. Would this change the events that would led up to him fathering the twins?
"Yes, and you would be?" Eric had been traveling through this castle for what felt like hours. As he traveled he could hear the faint wisps of conversation between others; yet he had never been able to find another living person. Just the undead who occasionally offered him food or drink and told him to not leave foot prints on the newly cleaned carpet. It had been unnerving to be sure, but he could only suspect that this was not Dracula's castle. Though to date he had yet to hear of a Dark Child with a pleasant home open to humans.
"Charlotte Aulin, I'm friends with Jonathan Morris, John Morris' son," she kept the friendly smile on her face, extending her hand for a hand shake. But she saw the visible start from Eric and knew that Jonathan had not been born yet. Nor the twins; meaning...
"John doesn't have a son, nor do I have any children."
Charlotte's expression softened as she nodded slightly, "yet. You don't have children 'yet'. Mr. LeCarde we need to fill you in on what's been going in this castle."
"He... doesn't know us? But does he know mother? What happens to us now? We have to tell him about our mother! We can't let him marry some other woman!" Stella argued through her heart broken tears as she rested her head on Loretta's shoulder. Maria stood at her back rubbing Stella's back in soothing gentle circles as she heard the quiet ranting.