For the first time in hundreds of years, daylight fell on the Forest of Eternal Night. Rinaldo idly wondered what they would call it now. 'Forest of Normal Day and Night' wouldn't suit, but the corruption had laid on this place for too long for any to recall its true name.
It was hard to believe it was all over. His family, that girl, every hunter and victim he had ever met over these past decades...all avenged. He kept checking the small patch of sunlight on the floor, waiting for it to blink away as darkness fell again. It was so neat, so perfect, it felt it couldn't be true.
There was a knock on the door and Leon entered, looking tired and worn. The cursed whip was coiled at his waist and he rested his hand on it without thought. "It's over, then," Rinaldo said, and nodded to the whip. "Hand it over. I think I may be able to undo the spell - or if I cannot, Mathias surely can. Your lady will reach heaven."
Leon made no reply for a long time, simply staring at Rinaldo as if he hadn't heard a single world spoken. Finally he shook his head. "No. That won't...I cannot...I still need this whip, Rinaldo."
"Did Walter escape?" Rinaldo's eye jerked back to the patch of sunlight, so small and fragile. There were other vampires, ones that could surely offer Walter shelter and strength in return for the protection of the Ebony Stone, and should they join forces... He was far too old for this.
"No, no, I killed him. Walter is dead. Your family is avenged, Rinaldo, and I am glad to have had your support in it." Leon hesitated, not meeting Rinado's eyes. "But he was not the one behind all this."
Slowly, the tale came out. Leon's telling was unpracticed and required some backtracking, but in time Rinaldo felt he had a grasp of the situation.
Strange. He had always assumed it would be Elisabetha who would go mad at the death of her husband on some campaign. His impression of Mathias had always been of a man with too clear a view of the world to go to these extremes - ah, but perhaps that was the problem. Mathias only ever saw the world in front of him, and his mind could not find the faith to ask God for support.
"So now I must hunt him down," Leon finished. His tone betrayed nothing of his feelings - neither regret nor sadness tinged his words, just a calm statement of facts. "I just...do not know where to start."
"Go home," Rinaldo said firmly. "Get some rest, take care of any affairs that have cropped up in your absence, inform your lady's family of her death. Then make your plans for the future." Privately, he just wanted to get some time to think. Finding a man was hard enough, much harder to find a vampire that could hide in the forest as a beast until his pursuers had moved on. And the longer they took, the more time Mathias had to prepare...to offer more vampiric souls to the Crimson Stone.
"...sign my lands to my creditors..."
"That's going a little far, don't you think?"
Leon shrugged at the disbelief in Rinaldo's tone. "I don't have the money to pay them. Besides, Mathias will not stay here, so I cannot either. He'll go somewhere he can find other people and learning...not Rome, nor Constantinople...Egypt, perhaps."
"And how will you get to Egypt, then?" Leon started to reply, and Rinaldo held up a hand to stop him. "Let me handle this. I do have some contacts left, even having lived here for so long. The world of alchemy is a small one." It was thanks to Mathias he still had those contacts. How ironic. "I can sell my potions in your lands while you take care of business. Then I will give you the profits, along with a letter of introduction to a certain family in Alexandria. That will be a place to start."
"I cannot thank you enough for all you have done for me."
"Don't speak of it. I'm not offering to come along, you know." Rinaldo settled himself and looked at Leon dead on. "But. Leon, consider what you are doing here. You are going to search whole world for one man, a man that can transform himself into bat or wolf as he pleases. A man that has severed his past as well as you. There is no guarantee you will find him, and no guarantee your child will carry on your duty. Just as likely he will sell the whip to live comfortably. Knowing this, do you still intend to set off on this quest?"
Leon's gaze fell to the table again, and it was another long moment before he spoke. "I have no choice. Your counsel is sensible, and the words of one most likely wiser than I. But consider yourself, Rinaldo," he said and smiled without joy. "Was there any guarantee that someone would defeat Walter before your own life ended?"
"Hmph." Impudent little brat. "Very well. Help me gather up my materials, there's a long walk ahead of us before we'll find any other humans."
"Of course," Leon said, but did not move. He stood there, rubbing his fingers over the cursed whip and watching the new dawn through the window.