Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written by: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Dawn, it was peering rather sleepily over the walls of the Vatican, warming the cold stone with it's rays of light. Shining like how truth and justice should pierce through the darkness, or in a certain witch's eyes, blinding like how a stinking orb would. Or so would Yoko proclaiming depending on the hour of the day and the amount of sleep she had acquired.
Which was why the 86-year-old Pope was guiding the much younger Yoko around. Ah Yoko, a brilliant conversationalist if one could get her on the right path, a lousy morning person. In fact if the Pope didn't guide her, she'd be as a stumbling drunk through the gardens. Jet lag followed by a five am meeting was, she would announce, a curse God put on man.
Of course staying up all night making jokes about the Popes speeches to the mass really didn't justify sympathy for Yoko's; ahem, suffering. Yet at the same time, Yoko was, when awake, a pleasant person to talk to, as she gave an opinion that was closer to the opinion of the people. Something he needed now as Pope, his council didn't always wish to tell him the full truth.
Though it was true that, as the Pope, he was to be above such idle rumors as those given by the 'common man'. It was because he couldn't be swayed by jealous rumors, when his path was to protect and guide his flock. Or rather, he shouldn't be swayed, but even the Pope was a human, thus why he was kept apart from the rest of the world. But unlike so many previous Popes that had served the Catholic Church; Alexander, as he was known now, was one of the select few in the church who could say they had spoken to the Dhampire.
Each man chosen to be the Pope always, always, brought something of his own personal interest into the position. When he was elected to the position of Pope, it meant he had been elected to a position of more then just what the global media saw. It meant playing a very unusual waiting game with a select group of people.
As Pope, he was viewed as the highest-ranking person in the Catholic Church, if not of the whole Catholic faith. While individuals may hold the esteem of the masses, they came and went as all humans do. But the Pope was in a sense near eternal, it wasn't really about the man, it was about the Faith, the conviction, it was devotion everlasting, a state as near as holy as a person could get without standing before the King of Kings.
It would be, therefore, the height of scandal if it were ever discovered that the Holy See, the very highest of the Catholic Church had allowed the use of a lesser, more pagan, religion in their attempts to seal away a great evil. The mere thought that a religion based on a single supreme creator couldn't handle a very active potent evil?
No, people required a moral compass to follow otherwise chaos and anarchy ruled their lives. People by default if untrained or not raised to a certain standards often found it hard to attain a certain lifestyle, not without mixing it with their original style. Many times, this change was good, new fashions, new technologies, ideas were borne from the mixing pot of different sources. But religion was a different matter, people were raised and conditioned for the training they had been given for that particular service, losing its purity, no matter how sincere often meant a loss to the way of life. And when it came to seals, and the Dark Lord, tainting was a result that could not, in belief, be allowed to happen.
Time and again those who had faced Dracula had been only able to send him back into the very chaos. Alexander was not even a Cardinal at the time before 1999, he knew nothing of the discussions that the previous Popes were involved in when they agreed to the new style of sealing. Only when he had become a Cardinal did he learn about the Seal. About the waiting game that the Church was now in, waiting to see if the Final Battle had truly been fought, or if Dracula would return again.
When Yoko returned from her assignments at least then he knew how fared the fate of the world. After all she was rather fond of the side effect of the sealing. When the seal was put into place, the understanding was that it would banish the evil of Count Dracula from the world; however, the seal apparently took this term quite literally and all that remained of the Count was his human soul. He, as well as the Cardinals, was amazed at the idea that the Lord of Darkness had a human, and therefore, a presumably pure soul. When they discovered the prophecy about the Dark Lord's return they wondered if the war would ever end.
"Ok I'm awake and dressed what more do you want from me?" Yoko asked between jaw breaking yawns.
"Early morning motto?" Alexander asked amused as she blearily looked up at him. "I do believe you have guests here so you really should try and wake up."
"Yeah… Say Your Holiness, why did the Cardinals of Internal and External Affairs want to see Alucard and Soma?" Yoko asked as she straightened up a bit.
"The recent events, now that Soma is strong enough to travel on his own. The Cardinal wished to see the boy for himself. The host of the powers of Darkness isn't something that should be an unknown to us. We wished to meet the youth, to confirm his heart, I hope that they understand how both odd and dangerous the situation is." Alexander explained calmly with a faint smile, after all it was more then the feelings of a couple of people at stake.
"Soma…" Yoko looked internally distracted at that, remembering the battle. "He's trying to hold on; it's, well, his emotions that are sorta the problem. When grief and all the emotions that follow grief are pushed to the extreme within him, he just loses himself. I wonder what type of person Soma was before he became Dracula originally." Yoko sounded wistful at that last part, wishing that they had been able to stop the pain that had brought about Dracula originally.
"A man who felt emotions strongly, and that has not changed apparently." Alexander replied his eyes focused on a distant door off the side of the garden. Bird song filled the air as the pair talked, lifting the mood of the conversation as they made their way towards the door as part of the stroll through the garden.
"The family crypt," Yoko breathed as she walked over to the door and placed her hand upon it. All the members of the Belmont clan who had ever faced Dracula was buried there, not only them, but off to the side bore the crypt of all those who aided the Belmonts. Even Yoko's own esteemed ancestor, Sophia Belandes, was buried there.
Sometimes she wondered, if she was living up to her potential, if Sophia; were she to see her current representative of the Clan, be proud. The stories told, always showed Sophia as a strong, decisive woman who knew right from wrong and the sacrifices necessary to follow the right path.
But did she ever have a problem like the one that Yoko had? All the Belmonts, all of her own clan, they always had it so simple back then, just go into the castle and destroy Dracula. That wasn't the case this time, physical hardship was one thing, emotional hardship was different. Going into a Castle, killing monsters all the way through and then killing the Count was one thing. But getting to 'know' the human side of Dracula all the while knowing that you may one day have to kill the guy? Did they know? Did her ancestors or the Belmonts know that it took overpowering grief to make Dracula do what he did?
"Lost in thought dear child?" Alexander asked kindly as he studied her quiet features.
"Father? What's the greater sin? Patricide or…" she found herself unable to think of a way to finish the question.
"You're thinking of Alucard. His situation is with no easy answer; on the one hand he does a great service to those who cannot fight, by taking up his sword against evil. On the other hand it is his own father who he must strike down, no, it's not an easy answer that one. One would note, that he always addresses his father either as his father or by his title and name. But always respectful, the son who was doing what he had to do, even if it did break his own heart. Dracula must have been a good man before his wife's death; Alucard would not be so faithful or torn otherwise. Yoko?" Alexander cocked his head to the side as he studied Yoko's sudden change of expression. She went from thoughtful to suddenly moving so that she was on his other side studying the now eerily, silent garden. "The birds… they stopped singing."
Alexander never really ever 'saw' Yoko in action, he only saw her on the Vatican grounds in her usually role of serving the church. Oh he heard the rumors that she could do more then just animate stuffed toys, the Stuffy Patrol Christmas Express train came to mind. But he had never actually seen her do anything that made him think she could properly defend herself in a given situation. Thus the shift from sleepy woman, to thoughtful caring nun, to a now fully alert tensed up witch was a surprise. He didn't feel threatened, but apparently something had set off Yoko. "Go, if I am not the target than go and see to the matter."
She was gone the moment he spoke, freeing her to go and check out what had happened, moving at a speed that left the old man blinking in amazement. So, there actually 'was' more to Yoko Belandes then just her bubbly personality. Leaving him to stand alone in the garden of the Vatican with the door to the Belmonts Crypt behind him.
Before him laid a splendid garden, tended to by the loving hands of the nuns and priests of the church, a beautiful fountain of Jesus teaching his disciples resting in the center. Apple and fig trees grew in predetermined locations providing shade for the guest of the garden; in the morning the dew reflected the sunlight like a field of diamonds. The Vatican, the grandest of bastions of the Catholic faith in the entire world, the glorious gilded cage for the head of a faith that was tested daily in every man. "What is worse? Patricide or standing aside and letting the innocent suffer instead of fighting back? Dear daughter, the worst is having to make that call at all."
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Yoko ran through the garden, dashing through the doors with enough speed to leave the guards gaping as she ordered them to watch over the Pope. As she ran past the rich cream colored, white trimmed walls she tossed her senses out to the fullest trying to find the source of the disturbance, much akin to a fisherman casting a line. Well she knew what the source was, Soma clearly, but she couldn't figure out why he would be acting out like this. The souls were once more gone, leaving Soma a typical teenager, albeit with a dark responsibility. It was the dark aura that he possessed, it was seething, no raging, about something that she couldn't understand.
She took to the stairs twenty at a time, with each bounding leap, leaving the poor choirboys, priests, nuns, and other members of the church to stare at her in wide-eyed amazement. The Vatican was a precursor version of Dracula's castle in Yoko's opinion, far too blasted big to be of any use to anyone. Well at least it didn't have a horde of monsters to fight through, which was a small miracle unto itself, since choirboys technically 'were' little monsters when left unattended.
She hung a left at a statue of the Apostle Paul, nearly slid into the wall when she hit the humble portrait of Mary, nearly tripped over that 'will they ever get it fixed' carpet snag at the statue of Mary Magdalene that often sent the poor person running right into her breasts. Though lo she finally did hear a great deal of voices, much akin to the sounds of a gang talking about a fight while the two combatants shrieked their hate at the center of the mass.
But amid all the high ranking hats, so useless, and people clearly taller than herself, there was nothing she could see. Polite, if strained, requests to get by where ignored while she recognized Somas' angry voice, shrieking about being released. Channeling her lightning spell, when applied to the poking, however got the first priest to jump a good three feet into the air. He landed in an undignified heap at her feet causing the priests ahead of him to turn around to see what was the matter, again no one really seemed to want to remember she was also a witch. As in 'magic is real and I'm not afraid to use it' real.
"Move it or start praying your pacemakers can handle it." She threatened with her index finger still sparking with electricity. That cleared her a path to the door faster than crosses at a vampire convention. She stomped her way to the doorway and looked inside where the chaos was still going strong despite her arrival. "This can not in any way be considered a good thing."
The Vatican came with many offices that were designed for mere conversations or meetings. Oak wood desks, and chairs a rich red carpet, with all the cushions also of that same shade of red. With a fireplace capable of being lit during the winter months it made the place feel pleasantly warm during those winter months, but almost cloyingly hot in the summer when mixed with the incense.
The room had a strict sense, no curves everything was straight with sharp angles, her witch senses never did like this room. Above the mantel rested a lovely portrait of a field of flowers with a cottage, two lovely young girls were playing among the flowers with a mountain range off in the distance. The curtains were pulled shut, which was odd considering it so early in the morning. Rows of books rested on shelves that were built into the walls, with a couch that normally rested near them toppled backwards. The room unto itself looked pretty much normal, save that the chairs were tossed aside, this way and that, and there were papers that littered the floor like the leaves of early fall.
The priests were struggling to hold Soma back, the teen looked fit to kill, his eyes wide and intensely focused, his otherwise neat clean white coat being used to help hold him back. His black turtleneck, his bellbottom blue jeans and his belts were being grabbed and held on to like life depended on it. Which given the fact that he had Claimh Solais out and dripped with blood, probably meant someone's life 'did' depend on his restraint. Cardinal D'Arsit was now with a pair of priests trying to help staunch a ridiculous amount of blood from somewhere. Further back, closer to the fireplace three nuns was tending to Arikado in a way that brought to mind the image of Christ after the Crucifixion. The only one fully capable of calming Soma down was out cold apparently, and what hope was there for Soma when it would be a Cardinal of the Church set against him?
