Let the Symphony Last for Eternity
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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A maid busily brushed the crumbs off the long table, while another brushed the spilled crumbs into a dust pan. One was gathering up books and placing them back into their appropriate spots when smoke began to coil its way into the room. At first the servants paid it no mind, until the maid working on the table looked at the entryway in passing glance. Smoke in the library? No, no, no, this simply would not do!
The long library was a place of books, though if the Lord wished to dine in the room, who were they to argue? However...
"What is that?" she asked in her remembered French, causing the other maids to still themselves from their work and redirect their gazes.
For a moment the smoke just hovered near archway then drifted further into the room before materializing into a woman who hadn't been seen in ages.
"My lady!"
The servants all rushed to put down what they were doing so that they could present themselves before her properly. Each maid giving a proper curtsy, while Lisa looked about, still amazed at how she could be seen when she willed it. The futility of centuries had truly come to an end!
"Well, the castle seems to be more lively than it has been for quite some time. I wonder what has brought about this change?" Lisa commented to the maids who looked at each other then back at her.
"Mayhap my Lady's Lord Husband? He was here some time ago, dinning and eating with a calm manner," the center maid offered.
"My Lord Husband eating in the Library amid the books? Have you forgotten my Lord only drinks blood?" Lisa scolded. She was well aware of Shaft's control over the Belmont, and if he wanted to read and eat it mattered not to her. But to address him as 'Lord'? The Belmont had been broken by Shaft's magic and she was aware that it was part of the act. However it still displeased her to have the servants refer to 'him' as 'Lord'.
"True he looks different and his demeanor was more benign," one maid dared to speak her thoughts even as she lowered her head. At least with the Lady of the Castle, the servants could speak their thoughts, unlike when they were in the presence of the Lord. At least with her, they wouldn't be destroyed out of hand.
"But he is our Lord, he asked for food. How could we deny him?" Another asked, growing more timid at the look on Lisa's face.
"He be not our Lord!" She retorted, "my Lord Husband is 'not' that..."
"Oh, girls! Wonderful news! Our Lord and the Young Master have reconciled!" A new maid's enthusiastic voice broke through Lisa's reprimand as she rose up from the ground, already chatting away the moment her head and neck fully rose up. "I was putting the vase at the front as that busy body butler told me when I came... MY LADY!" The zombie maid's eyes got wide at the sight of Lisa and nearly fell out of her head.
She rose from the ground in the archway entrance of the room and the more that appeared the more she curtseyed for Lisa. When she finally could walk, she quick stepped her way over to the other maids and assumed the same docile posture as the others as Lisa closed her eyes.
Her son, her sweet gentle son siding with the Belmonts was one thing, but siding with the one being controlled by Shaft? She opened her eyes to see that the maids were silently talking, questioning eyes getting answered with eager nods. The maid who had just arrived caught sight of Lisa looking at them and turned her eager attention onto the Lady.
"Its true! The Young Master asked for me to guide him to our Lord and Master. Our Lord was traveling towards the front of the castle and they crossed paths. Our Lord bestowed a weapon for the Young Master and they parted in good terms!" The maid positively gushed with the delight she felt, not understanding why the Lady didn't share in that happiness.
"The Belmont is 'not' my Lord Husband," Lisa replied in a civil tone it was all she could do to not yell that the Belmonts were 'not her husband'. Though she wished with all her heart that her husband and son 'did' exist on good terms.
"Of course my Lady, I spoke not of the Belmont," the maid replied meekly, tilting her head and leaning a bit in an effort to coax her mistress into a better mood. "He be in a new body, the one in the white..."
"He be in the white, what?"
A hard, cruel voice commanded behind Lisa causing her to whirl around in surprise. The Belmont that Shaft had broken stood behind her, a dark eager grin on his lips and Vampire Killer in hand. "So you've seen Dracula in the castle?"
The Belmont inquired with a gleam in his eyes as he stood there staring down at the ghost and four zombie maids. Richter first appeared in more modest hunter attire years ago, yet with the power of Shaft controlling him and the taint of Dracula's dark magic Richter now dressed more richly. Gone was the headband, and his hair had grown long and waves cascaded down his face. The once closed coat was open now, exposing his ruffled white shirt. Possibly to mock would be hunters that even with his chest exposed their attacks would accomplish nothing.
Lisa wasn't sure why Shaft was making the Belmont wander the Castle again, she had hoped that the sole trip down to the Colosseum was going to be it for them. But apparently the dark priest felt the need to take his little Hunter out for a walk. After some thought, she decided that addressing Shaft directly when he was controlling the Belmont was pointless. There was no telling how much the puppet was aware while in this state. Perhaps he was aware of a great deal and just could do nothing to stop this impulse to hunt?
"Girls, we will continue this conversation later, I now charge you to leave this room and find a place safe of these blood hungry hunters."
Lisa heard the soft murmurs of consent behind her as she released her desire to be seen so that she could tug the Castle into protecting these maids. The Lord of the Castle was in a new body passively eating and reading? If Shaft found this person he wouldn't still be using the Belmont to serve as the Lord, he would more than likely turned the Belmont into a guardian of some degree. The Castle had pulled so many into it, could it have pulled her Lord Husband from some point?
A new body in something white?
"A new body in white... Finally, I can hunt once more!" Richter broke into a cruel, delightful laugh as he turned from the room. He didn't need anymore information, all he needed was to find someone in white.
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At some point, he had decided he wasn't in a strange nightmare, but he hadn't left the idea that he was experiencing a strange situation. He wasn't aware of any other Vampires who had their own castles with monsters. The Castle was far grander than anything he had experienced in dealing with Dracula. But castles had a logic to them at all times and this castle clearly had none, what with every door taking him to vastly out of place locations.
From towers to underground, outer walls to inner gardens, the chapel next to the Colosseum, next to a clock tower. This castle was clearly designed by someone insane with a taste for overt finery. Which wasn't his problem, he had been dispatching all the monsters he came across with ease until he noticed a noticeable decrease in said monsters. At first he thought it was just that this was a weaker vampire that couldn't maintain a large army like Dracula could. Until he walked into one area and noticed the neatly dressed monsters were fleeing from the mere sight of him, and the larger monsters were staying behind to face him.
But whatever.
The library ghosts had swarmed him for a while were now gone, the books that had attacked him were scattered sheets on the ground. The dying wail of a poltergeist faded into the sound of a living laugh drawing his attention to a part of the library. A shadow on the ground brought him further in, his hopes for a real challenge rising up.
Quickening his step showed him a blue clad stranger with wavy long brown hair. The man dressed in elegance, but the leather strap that hung down showed signs of a warrior. Was this a rich idiot pretending to be a mighty hunter or a mighty hunter having gotten soft on his exploits? It was upon the stranger's movements that he saw what looked like the Vampire Killer held in the man's hand that held his attention.
So after having seen Trevor and himself deal with the undead with a whip had others sought to use the whip as a hunters weapon? What idiots, the Vampire Killer was unique, not something that could be replicated with even sturdy high quality leather and metal. At the same time a faint memory of the way the Whip was described in the hands of his ancestor Trevor came back to his mind.
He noticed how the blue clad stranger picked up on his presence, suddenly turning to face him and those eyes were those of a hunter. But there was more that he could feel about this hunter, though he only saw this man before him, that sixth sense some of his cousins in the witches clan spoke of... This person wasn't alone? Not one to have a familiar of his own like the witches, yet... Though he liked hunting alone he wished he had a better grasp of what these instincts implied.
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Dracula, once again in the Castle? Perhaps it was true and it was Dracula, but Richter hadn't finished the ritual to bring back the Lord of Darkness. Perhaps it was a pretender to the throne, like the other two bloodsuckers? But if this person was enough to get the minions to respond in such a manner then who was Richter to deny such a stranger an audience with the most powerful of Hunters?
But first this strange being who stood before him...
A red headed hunter motif with half a vest that protected his heart, trimmed in dark fur and eyes that carried the soul of the hunter. A hunter that Richter remembered seeing in stone at the family graveyard, giving him both a reason to pause and grow in excitement.
"Simon? Simon Belmont?"
Richter was well aware the Castle had manifested zombie versions of the original heroic trio. So the Castle had gone on to create an even higher quality version zombie Simon for Richter to destroy? He hoped that it would be a worthy monster, unlike the lack luster trio.
Internally it was a battle against the lust for battle that went unchecked the moment that Shaft had gotten his evil spells in Richter. The blood lust need for the hunt that could consume the uninitiated roared in his ears. If the Castle had finally produced a worthy zombie, who was he to deny himself a bit of a warm up before he hunted down the supposed return of Dracula?
While deep down inside the back of his mind where Shaft had locked him away, Richter once outraged roar had worn down to a despairing wail. He couldn't break free of the evil around him, nor could he think of any way to get any type of aid. Never had he faced this side of the Whip, this bloodlusting huntress of her own kind.
The instant that Shaft had broken Richter with his evil magic the Whip had turned on him. His mind consumed by the image of a blood soaked woman. There was no way to tell the color of her once fine clothes, torn and stained now into rags. Her hair was long and hung down from her head like thick vines having soaked up so much blood. The only colors she bore were the stains of dried blood when she lunged at him, screaming incoherent rage and the whites of her blood red eyes.
Bound though he was, he had no way to defend himself, and at first took a savage beating by her sharp talons. At first he didn't even think to speak to her, his first thought that this was just a monster sent into his soul by Shaft. But she proved to be the Whip herself when she fell back on her own, confused and began to observe him more closely.
When he realized he was looking at the Vampire Killer he found himself stunned to realize the might of the whip was a woman. This was the soul of Vampire Killer? This wild vampire sealed and thirsting for the blood of the Dark Children? She seemed to realize on her own that he was bound in her own time, and now she held him. Her once raging blood red eyes eased into a soft amber hue of color, her expression faintly held some sense of compassionate concern.
He should have lost the ability to use the Vampire Killer, so long as the whip was in his hands he was a threat to both fiendish monster and innocent Dark Child alike. But she took apparent pity on his situation and held her grip on him. Making him a threat to the world around him and the cruel irony left anguished tears in his heart.
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"You carry yourself as a hunter and know the name of my clan... But I know not you." Simon replied, his head tilted to the side a bit as he studied the man before him. But the stranger didn't seem interested in any conversation which was fine. Simon wasn't exactly one who loved a great deal of verbal conversation. But he couldn't shake the feeling there was clearly something wrong with this situation. Even as he grasped the hilt of his short sword in his other hand and pondered if the cross or the holy water would help. This one was clearly human, yet if there was something controlling him then wouldn't those holy items show him the truth?
The sneer on the strangers' face was mocking and cruel, yet somewhere in the depths of that gaze Simon saw something missing. The desire was there but not the soul; so a type of possession may have taken the man. Was it the whip? A fake whip that tricked the hunter and was now pursuing a type of prey? He needed to get closer to the whip to decide that, was this hunter a victim of evil intent or...
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He had always resurrected, so how did he get in a new body? Unless he was passively hiding in the body until such time that he could take over. But that he swayed the body into offering a weapon to their child? Even as she tried to think of what her husband was doing a cold thought took over. The Hunter now had a target to hunt. Shaft would undoubtedly go hunting for this person in white and put her husband back into power. She had to find him first!
What ever form he was in, she had to let him know the danger that would now be stalking him. If this person was unaware of her husband with Shaft on the move this person could lose control over their own bodies. If they both knew, with Shaft on the alert, they would have to evade the Priest.
Yet why would her husband? Why would Mathias allow himself to travel the castle so passively and not get involved in things? Unless the presence of the Hunter was keeping him from the Master Chambers out of the need for self preservation. If Mathias was 'not' completely in control then the stranger hosting him may not realize the threat to his life. She had to find this man in white, which meant protecting the maid until she could get the rest of the facts out of her.
At least now she understood why the maids said the Lord of the Castle had been dinning in the library. The Castle apparently decided to pull some soul into it for her husband to inhabit and he had, for whatever reason, opted not to overpower the person. Though why had her sweet little prince accepted the blade? Was... was it possible that finally her husband had been freed of his anger?
It was a thought she was so afraid to think, a possibility too grand to fathom. The people in the Castle could see her when she willed it. The maids described her Lord Husband as being benign and their precious little prince had accepted a gift from his father. Could she finally hope that her husband was free of his rage and her visibility due to his calm nature? Even if she was a mere ghost, to be able to be seen by her husband and son again, to talk again!
It was so precious a dream, nothing save her time with her family could match it in sweetness and joy. She needed to find those maids! She needed to keep them safe from Shaft, and if she ran into the one in white she would... She would what? How could she engage this stranger without getting the alarm of her Lord Husband? Or... what if he was the one person in the Castle who couldn't see her?
But no! After centuries she was going to hope that she could be seen by her now at peace husband!