Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Trevor charged forward into the room not really able to care about who was in the room.
Instead he charged straight towards the door on the other side of the room where Sophia hovered waving at him. He could sense Kazu the moment he stepped into the room, making the shielding of the place some of the strongest he ever felt. But also meaning that even once Trevor arrived on the grounds it probably did nothing to aid settling down Kazu.
"Yoko's toys." Was a dismissive comment made as Trevor ran straight under the table and made his way to Sophia.
The room itself was deceptively decorated with 'historical artifacts', weapons hanging on the wall, with a thick and sturdy wall resting book shelf that held a good number of books with leather bindings. Yet those 'artifacts' were still empowered, those books; arcane tomes that still held their power. 'Gifts' from the Castle, from Knives to Crosses, if it had been wielded by a hunter it was in the room.
"My Holy Water!' Richter suddenly took off to the right, where a series of bottles hung low on Richters' old holster. Guarding his heart with its leather but it also carried the bottles of holy water he had found. Indeed it hadn't been used since he traveled the Castle yet he could still see the water in those glass bottles.
Excitement at seeing his old equipment made him forget that he was now trapped in the form of a small toy dog. He popped one of the small bottles free, and with his other paw slapped off the stopper.
"HYDRO STORM!"
Leon was far away the eldest and also most mature as he watched the stuffed dog descendant he had. Richter was standing on his back paws, hence feet, with one paw raised up as though in some form of victory when it just started to rain in the room...
"That's the gayest thing I've ever seen an I've seen three straight Gay Pride parades."
"How were they Gay Pride if they were 'straight?" Christopher asked in a rather deadpan voice.
While Simon stood there his ears wiggling madly before he managed to start laughing, "I fucking hate you Christopher."
Leaving Leon to wonder why happiness was now something that a person was not supposed to have pride in. And if it was something Lady Mina could answer with her uniquely different Japanese Language.
"Is it too late to be put up for adoption?" Juste grumbled as he walked amid the raining holy water. Just to see if those 'were', in fact, his spell books that Richter was now 'endangering' with his idiotic stunt!
Leon, his mane becoming weighted by the Hydro Storm, made a resolute stride into the room and around the people seated table. Family. "Kazu is family. I recognize him."
"The Japanese lion?" One woman asked a frown on her face, he could see they were a clan of their own. They shared a number of family features, all blond with some hiding white amid their golden halo of hair. Some brushed their hair straight, others only to a point allowing it to become these thick waves.
"Yes, this is Leon, as in 'Leon Belmont'. For the lion's body was created by the Castle, and Yoko put, apparently by accident, the soul of Leon Belmont in it." Julius explained as he studied the women at the table. Several were his cousins a few his aunts and being personally reunited with them now. In 'this' capacity after being gone so long. His cousin Melissa had been a goth when he last saw her! Now she appeared to have sold out into the typical style of a typical business woman! Was it because of the meeting? Or did she change 'this' much? "You just had Richter give an example of his presence, that dog is Juste, the bears are Simon and Christopher. From how it was explained to me, those bodies were made from Build-A-Bear. So its not just the Castle's doing in some nefarious way."
"Impossible." Sandra growled as she stood up and turned towards the door behind her. "Belmonts have no place in our affairs." Her robes dragged along the ground soaked and darkened by the water.
"What can I say? There's no code for them to know I'm here and Kazu is a boy." Sophia lamented.
"Insolence!Leon retorted, "this home. Belmonts. Why come here?" He turned to stand resolute before Sandra, despite his training to 'not' be aggressive towards a lady. "Sophia is here. Wants to speak."
"The dead can't talk." Sandra retorted earning her a defiant mane toss.
"I. Speak."
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
"Stay at the door with Trevor, Kazu," Yoko ordered as she knelt by their mother and continued trying to free the woman. Faking being out cold so they would just drop Kazu and leave had been easy.
Dealing with his powers trying to send him straight into the ground had been harrowing, as she had to whip up to her feet and dash across the room in seconds. They were already in the ground, so there wasn't the panic of Kazu sinking into a floor and falling to the ground below.
The room itself was blocking her magic but it wasn't sealing away Kazu's ability. Even as she was running to her brother she saw him start to sink into the ground!
"Sister..." Kazu whimpered as he curled on himself as the brief feeling of the ground melted away beneath him. Once her hands grabbed a hold of his arms and began pulling he became grateful for the pain.
"I have you." She told him quietly even as she was now trapped in a quandary. Their mother needed help, but if she let Kazu go he would likely be standing on the earth shin deep in concrete. On the one hand she could just have him leave the house, if he ran fast enough they would likely be standing on open ground until she could, hopefully, escape with their mother. If Kazu started trying to make the journey through the manor walls to the outside and Trevor showed up, Kazu would have his feet magically amputated or sealed 'inside' the walls.
"Mom what do we do? Can we risk letting kazu walk outside? Men brought him in here what if..." Yoko asked as she curled her brother up on her lap as best as she could letting him cling to her like when he was a baby.
"If this 'is' the Belmont Manor, this room is meant to be used for containment, it shoul... Oh there we go." Valencia noted as the walls began to glow in sigils. "You should be able to let Kazu go," She announced as she laid there watching as her outspoken little girl was trying to protect her baby brother. "The room contains 'dark beings', the thing is that it associates 'dark' with 'evil', but chaos and darkness is the wellspring of power. Chaos is what allows us our abilities, our sense of Order is how we shape that power."
"Sooo..." Yoko dragged the sound out as she watched Kazu begin to fitfully pull his feet up as though it had been trapped in concrete. "You know, Simon taught me a few tricks, I think I'm going to use them on whoever ratted out Kazu to the family." Yoko grumbled. "Don't even need magic, just a knife."
But his feet began to rest 'on' the floor, a sign that was followed by Kazu bouncing his heels before putting his weight on the ground.
"Yoko..." Their mother half groaned even as she mused on the fact that they probably wouldn't even 'have' their magic soon.
But slowly Yoko began testing out if Kazu would be solid in their time before she went back to trying to untie their mom.
Kazu was sluggish in that part, his constant panic had drained him of all his reserves leaving him helplessly watching as his sister worked. "Did they hurt mom?"
"Hurt myself trying to get out, its ok Kazu." Valencia answered her voice not carrying the pain she had experienced initially.
"No its not, she burned herself pretty bad. Feel free to go vegan if you want to come over here to help me with the rope." Yoko countered, her attempt at deadpan failing to be 'dead' as her voice hitched with worry.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
"I'm close enough to stabilize him," Trevor announced before turning his attention to the room. The holy water had finally stopped raining down upon them, the spots were disappearing quickly as this wasn't a den of darkness. The other witches were still seated with various expressions of neutrality on their faces and in their postures while Leon stared up at Sandra.
"Before you say anything stupid Leon," Simon began and got a smack in the head by Christopher. "Keep in mind Sandra was the second child born after the rape. She's had a shitty life and its not one I can argue against. She just never got the resources she needed because hunting Dracula was more important than their wellbeing."
The flicker of the tuft on Leon's tail was about the only sign he heard Simon, but just saying 'rape' dragged Trevor back into a state that bothered him.
"Kazuaki transfer. Not this," Leon stated lifting a paw up to stamp it on the ground. "Revert to old tradition."
Julius bit back the urge to tell Sandra to hand over power to her daughter. It was too much like a man asserting power that it would instantly set her off. "Leon is right, the tradition is that either we Belmonts, the DaNasty, Aulins, or Morris take a male from the belnades. Kazuaki 'has' power, its not tangible so it can't really fit in the Aulins. But he can see spirits, he can help the other clans."
"He is not of the clan! He is not of us and Valencia betrayed us! Simply because that silver tongued devil..." Sandra began harsh and cold yet the words felt like a slap to Julius.
"Did... are you calling 'Alucard' a 'silver tongued Devil'? The man went to help your mother Sandra! Sure he's cold and seemingly indifferent but the man 'cares', he cared enough to go to your mother when he was alerted to what was going on. He cared enough for your 'daughter' to give her to courage to not let your mother's pain be hers! Admittedly Alucards' not a great example, but we've asked too much of him! Time and again we've asked him to kill his own father for a world that fails him with impunity! He's not here because he's respecting your autonomy! He's not here because Dracula's reincarnation is friends with Yoko and Kazu, and could very easily make it possible to let the dead speak for themselves. He's letting 'you' speak for yourself! And you 'insult' him?"
"Ahh 'autonomy', the fucking word of the day," Simon grumbled before he shook his head. "I wonder what they did with the kid. Make her endure the pain, say nothing, or tell her to toughen up for the sake of family?"
"I wonder where mine was," Sophia lamented. "Victoria hasn't changed upon death, she just wants to be alone and we respected that..." Sophia thought of the sad state of the woman. While she was left hovering there gazing at her living kin and seeing the scars on them by proxy of presence alone.
"Leon, tell her that I said its ok. She doesn't have to be the 'perfect Belnades' anymore, we're not going to hurt her. We're not angry at her," Christopher voiced causing the other Belmonts to look at him. "I just was thinking about what they might have done to her. She was born after the rape and the child born 'from' the rape founded that hunting group right? We put that level of expectation on ourselves and our sons because we're Belmonts. We look at it as ' we have to be this way because anything less will have Dracula destroy the world'. But if that same logic was applied to Sandra..."
'A maiden who dons the armor of her brother to fight in his name for his glory is admirable true. But a maiden raised in shame and thrust into the suit of armor mayhap before her time or against her wishes...'
Given a new perspective Leon found the annoyance melt away replaced with a stronger sense of remorse and grief for how the girl must have struggled. But he was still limited in words, what could he say to convey his feelings?
"Enough!" Leon finally stated as Sandra began arguing with Julius. "You have suffered. As mother suffered. Our clans failed. You." Leon began, hating this limited away of talking. If Mathias had attended his presence would have allowed Leon more of his voice but now... "Not disputing you. But protecting all of you."
Sandra's eyes glimmered on the corners as her hands curled into fists. "We have our traditions that date back to Sophia Belnades!"
"Tradition says: Give to us." Leon countered swiftly even as he realized the problem. Sandra didn't have any other living family elders from her clan who would have known. "One of us. We take Kazuaki. No shame. Leave women with you. Sophia and Juste. Both claim 'true' tradition."
Simon's ears were wiggling, "I miss the good old days when I could just beat the shit out of people. Was pretty good at it too, even as a zombie."
Richter quietly walked across the floor until he was at Sandra's feet. The woman's distress, clarified by Christopher, caused a burning ache to be rekindled in his chest. Recalling his time as Shafts prisoner, the intense dark powers used upon him until he broke. 'Most powerful Belmont' was a title he earned as he had been the most physical and magically adapt member of the whole clan. Yet it had done nothing to save him from those dark days and darker nights. He had held himself responsible for his weakness, cut himself off from the Vampire Killer and gave its responsibility to the Morris clan.
It was the right thing to do! If he had the Whip he was a danger to both Belnades with their witch powers and Alucard who had saved him! The Whip needed to be sealed away! Until someone was born who could surpass him in power in the Belmont Clan itself! But in 'doing the right thing' he had not accounted for how the Whip would respond. Unaware of how the Whip would kill a nonBelmont over time, John died. While the shame and rejection he had expected from his exulted ancestors never came.
Tears wanted to burn his eyes but they were made of plastic and his furry toy face was without tears. So instead he leaned himself against Sandra's leg then he began patting the top of her foot and rubbing it with a paw. When his action caught Leon's eye he could only give a quiet, "I know how her mother must have felt."
Trevor was quiet until he got violently flung out of the way. "SIMON YOU BASTARD!"
'I wonder if this is what they mean when they say 'a family of degenerates'...' Leon mused as he stoically refused to look beside him at the noise.
While Simon dragged Christopher with him and together began working on the doorknob to get to Yoko and the others. The witches watched mutely for a moment as the golden toy dog went soaring over their heads. The absurdity and sadness warred into a soft chuckle escaped a few of the women.
"Poor doggy, which Belmont is that?"
"Trevor," Julius answered as he reached out and snatched the dog out of the air.
The giggling in the room grew only for it to stop when one of the women's eyes grew big. "So if Yoko sealed the souls of the Belmonts in those dogs, it would be reasonable to believe that our ancestor 'is' with them... right?" The giggling died quickly after that while the door began to crack open from the two Belmonts working on it.
"No... Sophia would never tolerate..." Sandra's voice began cracking, fear, anxiety, desperation all began to work its way into her voice.
"Simon! I need to bonk you!" Yoko's voice came out of nowhere as a woman's hand appeared through the open door and snatched up Simon.
"What! NO you bitch! NO BONKING!"