The Future is Today
Disclaimer: Castlevania belongs to konami, not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic; it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Alucard… then he'd be mine.
Rating: PG-13
Part: one of three
Setting: Post the animated series
Authoress note: Daddy's home.
Italics = thoughts and flashbacks
Chapter Five
They found Dracula with bits of his hair on fire and half his beard missing.
He was also lying sprawled on the floor, staring up at the ceiling with a mildly perplexed expression. Greta watched, unsure what to do as Adrian stepped ahead of the small group and, bending at the waist, leaned over his prone father.
He burst out laughing.
It was the laughter that was born of fright. The overly loud hysterical laugh that slowly shrinks until it reaches acceptable levels. It took him a good two full minutes before he could offer a hand to his father and pull the man to his feet.
"If you're quite done." Dracula shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. Bits of stone and sand fell to the ground. Greta looked away from the vampire and at the wall he'd clearly come through. The hole was big, the explosion had been bigger.
"What happened?" Lisa's worried voice made Greta turn as Lisa ran past her and to her husband. She started looking over him frantically, pulling him this way and that.
"Are you hurt?"
"Just my pride." Dracula said, still brushing dust and bits off wall off his person. Lisa turned to look at the hole in the wall and let out a squeak of surprise.
"What on earth happened?" she demanded, but before her husband could answer she grabbed him and shook, or tried to shake, the most she managed was to tug at his clothes. "You said you knew what you were doing, that this was safe! Now you're blowing yourself through walls."
"Calm yourself." Dracula closed a hand over his wife's and used his free arm to pull her close. "It's alright, nothing irreparable. Watch." He reached out a hand, and the surrounding air all sparked with energy. Like the moments before a thunderstorm. Greta was growing used to the feel of magic. She still didn't like it. But she had to admit, as she watched all the bits of stone and rubble move of its own volition back into place in the wall. After a moment, it was as if nothing had happened.
"I don't care about repairing the damn wall." Lisa muttered, slightly smothered by her husband's hold on her. She pushed back from him. "You could have been killed."
"If I could be killed by something as basic as an explosion, then I'd have been long dead by now." Dracula smiled, clearly touched by his wife's concern.
"Besides, technically, he's already dead." Adrian put a hand on his mother's shoulder.
"Yes, thank you." Lisa rolled her eyes. "You're both useless."
"What happened, though?" Adrian looked up at his father. "Did you fuck everything up again?"
"Again? What's this again? And no, I did bloody not." Dracula blustered.
"Stop swearing." Lisa muttered, stepping back another step from her husband.
"I don't know what happened. I wasn't even doing anything. I was reviewing my notes from when I built the damn thing the first time."
"So, it spontaneously exploded?" Adrian did not sound convinced.
"With no interference?" Lisa sounded mildly more convinced, but just as confused as her husband.
"I wouldn't say that," Dracula sighed. "Come, I need to check something."
"It's not going to explode again?" Greta called as the group traipsed out of the room and into the room next door which housed a part of the travelling mechanism. "Not all of us are as durable as you."
"Don't." Adrian took her arm. "I'll make sure I'm between you and anything that might explode."
"That's not comforting!" Greta pushed him away but continued to follow as they entered the mechanism.
The room housing this part of the machinery was large. Dracula had pulled away parts of the wall, revealing gears and a lot of copper. Apparently, it was conductive as far as this kind of magic was concerned. Greta took Dracula's word for that. One of the larger gears had been removed and laid on the floor near a pile of melted gears, which Dracula and Adrian had been slowly accumulating as they replaced all the melted mechanisms with new, not-melted parts.
Behind where the large gear fitted into the system were flasks, each clear and holding a coloured liquid. One was holding a silver fluid that looked like it would be thick to touch. Greta recognised it from when Adrian had tried to tell her what he understood of the mechanism. It was quick silver. The blue fluid and the red one she did not recognise.
The fourth flask was empty.
"Ahh," Dracula made a sound that everyone knew meant 'ask me what I mean'. Greta rolled her eyes but played along.
"Find what you were expecting?"
She expected the Lord of the castle to erupt into a tirade explanation of the various fluids and how they had to be delicately balanced and some kind of imbalance had caused the explosion. But she flinched when he jerked forward faster than her eye could follow. Suddenly he was elbow deep in the clockwork. A grin of triumph on his face. He pulled back from the gears revealing his hand, in which was clasped a tiny person clasped.
Greta leaned forward while Adrian started chuckling again. Lisa made a delighted sound and reached out to take the tiny person from her husband.
"Oh, it's a fairy." Lisa coo'ed.
"A what?" Greta frowned.
"Small creatures, brilliant. They have a great deal of knowledge of medicine and magic. They effectively kept me alive during my pregnancy."
"They what?" Greta couldn't help her surprised expression.
"Being a frail human, carrying a half vampire child that grows rapidly," Lisa laughed. "Very few mothers survive."
"Hence why my kind are rare." Adrian nudged Greta, smirking. "I'm unique."
"Fat chance you are," great smiled and pushed him back, getting a better look at the fairy. The tiny woman was brushing herself off, fixing a dress that had been rumpled in her unceremonious evacuation from the machinery.
"What was she doing in the machine?" Greta asked.
"She," the fairy spoke up, her voice louder than Greta had expected. "Was minding her own business." The tiny woman launched into the air on dragonfly wings and hovered above them for a moment before lowering herself down to be below Dracula's head height.
"Sorry." Greta said to the tiny woman. "I've not met a fairy before." The fairy ignored her.
"Forgive the intrusion Lord." She performed a perfect curtsy in the air. "We heard you had returned, and we sought sanctuary within the castle as we had previously, but there were so many humans we feared the worst. So, we hid ourselves away."
"In my machinery." Dracula pinched the bridge of his nose. "You couldn't have hidden anywhere else? Or simply approached me?"
"We were afraid, great lord."
"Not so afraid as to leave well enough alone. The amber resin is gone." Dracula glanced at the empty flask.
"We thought it was nectar. We are starving, Lord." The fairy let herself fall to the floor. "We beg your forgiveness."
"Its fine." Dracula muttered, distracted. "I had thought this might happen."
"What?" Greta felt her skin prickle at the vampire's tone. Dracula frowned as if surprised by her question.
"My father attracts monsters," Adrian sounded as thrilled as Greta when he spoke. "He can't help it. He gives off an aura of dominance and in monster-speak that means 'come to me, I'll keep you safe, keep you fed, just do what I say'"
"That's a massive oversimplification." Dracula muttered.
"But an accurate one." Lisa stepped over to Greta. "I was alarmed too when it first happened, but it's not a bad thing."
"You're telling me monsters are going to descend on the village and that's not a bad thing?"
"There's already two monsters here." Adrian sounded a little hurt.
"You're not a monster," Greta glanced at Dracula. "And neither are you. The village knows that, but a hoard will frighten people, and frightened people do stupid things." She gestured to the fairy. "Frightened monsters do the same, apparently."
"None of them are monsters. They're just not humans." Adrian reached down and picked up the fairy. "They're all people, just different from you."
"I'm sure that if we did this slowly, it would be manageable, at least mostly." Greta took a deep breath. She had the distinct feeling that she was coming across as the bad guy here, and that was not her intention. But she also felt a spark of anger at Adrian. He knew her better by now, surely. "But you're giving me the impression that this will happen quickly."
"Perhaps," Dracula shrugged. "Perhaps not. We could see a trickle of non-human creatures arriving over the year or we could wake up tomorrow with a werewolf pack at the gate."
"Shit." Greta hissed.
"Oh, I hope the Nag come back!" Lisa smiled. "They were so helpful and generous with their time and scales."
"I'm not going to ask." Great muttered. She stared at Adrian. "We need to warn people. We have to stop them panicking." Adrian nodded.
"You're not wrong." He said. "If we woke up tomorrow with a hoard of something at the gate, then it might look like…" he trailed off.
"Night creatures?" Greta said. Adrian shrugged. "We have to get ahead of this."
"Can we call a meeting?" Lisa asked. "People aren't as stupid as my husband thinks. If we just talk, then I'm sure we'll be fine."
"But as you say, non-human creatures are just as capable of panic." Dracula took the fairy from his son. "I have a job for you and your kin. Consider it compensation for your interference with my work. Perform this duty and I will seek no further recompense."
"My lord," the fairy curtsied again. "Consider it done."
"I want you to spread the word of the situation here. The castle is, as always, a haven, but now that sanctuary is also open to a certain group of humans. Any who come here do so understanding that violence against any of my guests, I stress, any of my guests, will not be tolerated."
"I understand, my lord. Your generosity is endless, and word of it will reach even the farthest corners of our land."
"Very well," Dracula nodded to the woman. "You and yours are welcome here." The woman flew up from his hand, a high-pitched sound emanating from her wings. As if summoned by the sound, a swarm of fairies erupted from the walls. Greta felt her breath catch in surprise at their sheer number. They swarmed out of the wall, and flew upwards, out of the small window near the ceiling. The light reflecting off thousands of tiny wings.
"They're beautiful." Greta smiled at Adrian.
"Not all our guests will be as such." He said. "But they often make for interesting conversationalists. Those who lack the interest or the capacity keep to themselves."
"We're going to have to stock the pantries." Lisa muttered. "I doubt the village will be happy if livestock gets depleted by any new guests."
"I'll see about setting up a stockpile." Dracula pinched his nose again. "I was just making actual progress here, too."
"I can recommend a good foreperson, and a quartermaster if you need one." Greta swallowed the lump of anxiety swelling in her throat.
"I think that would be wise." Dracula smiled at her, "come we must 'warn' your people."
End
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