Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"Actually as I think on it, Jonathan or Charlotte are the two who would know what this 'cancer' thing is." Maxim mused aloud, "after all they're the most recent dead among us."
"Fair," Soleli agreed as they hovered over the book, literally bookending Soma in the process. "It says she's healthy, so what did her parents do? They said she was sick? Why?"
:You understand what cancer is right?: Soma's little verbal marquee rolled by and he watched as her eyes scrolled after the text. She slowly shook her head as her face twisted up into this uncertain confusion. Not helped at all by the fact that he now sported these adorable pair of felt vampire fangs.
"I mean I know its bad..."
'Untreated Cancer isn't the same as murder. Since its technically the body that is turning against itself. Well it should be classified as murder if it was idiots who opted not to get the girl treated. So even if I 'do' command Death, I can't make it bring Jessica to me...' Soma mused, he brought his hands to his face and steeple his fingers together so he could rest his head. His eyes half lidded themselves as he tried to figure out this unimportant yet curious mystery.
Jessica was either diagnosed with Leukemia and the parents were unable to deal with that thus turning to whatever cult they joined. Or they were already members and just tried to 'pray the cancer away'. So why tell Reba that 'she' had the same thing when she didn't? Praying to transfer the cancer 'to' Reba felt unreasonable, though possible. Having his servants and minions just kidnap her parents and bring them before him. Allowing Soma to interrogate the pair felt …. like felt. He couldn't with the way he looked and with Alucard gone there was no one to be his proxy.
'Not that Adrian would let me kidnap anyone, he'll sit on my throne and act in my stead when I behave. But I am well aware that kidnapping would not be viewed as 'good behavior'.' He groused to himself.
:So you don't really have any skills off the top of your head that would justify permitting you to live here?: Soma asked while the gears in his brain kept turning.
"I... I'm sorry, the kitchen staff was teaching me cooking, and given how good the were's were to me they started suggesting I have a talent with animals..." Reba explained before falling into a litany of apologies.
'Hmm animal husbandry... the servants said Francine was summoning summoners... So was this a combo? Was she meant to summon and Reba has an equal ability to soothe or control those forces?' It would be a watered down version of his own ability given what he had been told about the weres. :I'll say this about Animal Husbandry, its not simple, its a very physically taxing job. Made all the worse for you because you haven't been allowed to develop the muscles or the endurance for such work. Its more than giving a slice of apple to a horse after all.: He warned, yet he saw her eyes glow with a faint hope.
"I don't mind! So long as I'm in the castle I won't die or get weaker so the chance to work would be great." She earnestly replied as she faintly saw her reflection in those blue glass eyes. Reba looked so desperate and actually a bit of a mess. Her hair had been smoothed out by her hands not a proper brush and...
'Oh child you won't get sick, you may have allergies that resulted in giving your parents a justification to say you have an 'illness'...' Suddenly the idea of the child trying to do maids work and blowing herself through a door via sneezing ran through his mind.
It was quickly replaced with the presence of the very first vacuum that became part of the maids' tool kit. When he was Dracula the presence of the devices meant nothing to him, it was just this distant droning sound that he tuned out rather quickly. A skill he learned when he needed to drown out the sound of those rifles, and cannons and other 'toys'. Toys that the residents of his castle had acquired through the progression of time and evolution of man.
Only as Soma those vacuums had a different issue. Sucking up skirts, the embarrassed screams of a modest maid as she tried to keep her dignity and honor intact! The number of kicks to the head he received when the maids bowed to him, thus he returned the bow as he had been taught.
THANK YOU ASIA! JUST SAYING...
Just to get an axe kick to the head!
Repeatedly...
Until he absorbed his first Persephone soul and realized it was just part of their 'programming' if he was to put a word to it.
But putting his thoughts back to task, there really wasn't a being in the castle currently serving as a 'Animal Husbandry' head. The grave keepers had their undead bloodhounds, the owl knights their owls, Witches have their cats, but really no one was committed to the charge of all operations type being. 'But the gravekeepers might be a good choice, the dogs themselves are simple and the keepers could have help with their tasks. A nice educational experience for how to tend to the graves of the dead from multiple cultures... And the Witches didn't really come up with a job for themselves...'
:So how did you end up with Fortners' little cult?: Soma asked thankful that he didn't have to try to audibly 'sound' professional.
"Well my parents have been with the 'Love of our Lord' church for as long as I remember."
Soma had to fight the blank expression that wanted to form on his face. 'LooL? Seriously? That's the name?! No, it has to be something else... it HAS to be. I refuse to live on a planet that has 'LooL' as a 'cult name', you have to be terminally STUPID not to know what that is. Julius' age group would know this, his parents probably have a clue! This has to be a set up...' Soma thought to himself as he dug his little felt hands into the soft paper of the book he was resting them on.
"My sister Jessica got really sick, I remember the other members telling me about how she struggled and became bedridden. My parents tried everything they could, praying daily and leaving me with other members so I could be looked after while they prayed through the night. By the time I was old enough to move about and remember anything... I remember her being this pale wisp of a girl..." Reba's lips twisted into a frown as her eyes glimmered slightly from the memory of her sister.
Held up in bed, so thin that her skin rested over her bones the way a table cloth did a table. Reba placed her fingers next to Jessica's arms, touching Jessica would cause bruising, and noted how her sisters' arm bone was three finger's wide...
"Reba... be a good girl... if a chance ever comes for you to leave here... Promise me you'll take it." Jessica rasped out as she laid on her bed. Pillows were piled high so she could sit up at an angle.
"Leave? Why? Everyone here is nice..." Reba asked her tiny hands began kneading the blanket under her in concern.
Jessica's bulbous eyes turned from their locked gaze at the opposing wall down to Reba. A soft sigh escaping her lips the way a breeze slipped through a crack in a wall. "Promise me you'll leave. This place, isn't right. Nice isn't always 'right'."
Soma frowned as Reba recounted this, the book listed Jessica as being the older sister and clearly she was aware of the cult status. 'But for a 'child' to understand what is wrong with her, or at the very least, the sheer severity of it.'
"My sister, Jessica, died shortly after that night and I thought that, as a good little sister, I should obey her last wishes. Everyone in the church believed in doing stuff like that, but I didn't know where to start..."
'Don't go vamp, the fangs are enough. Don't go vamp, the fangs are enough...' repeated in Soma's head.
"So Jessica told her to run," Maxim mused quietly with a frown.
"She knew something was up, but look at her age she was only like five years older. How much more information did she get her hands on to realize anything?" Soleli asked before the words soured on his tongue and he shook his head. "Said my own answer, she was dying of something horrible likely she would have expected her parents to do more than merely 'pray'. This day and age is nothing like ours, I'm sure they wouldn't have just slapped some leeches on her and called it a day!"
"'Nice isn't always right'." Maxim repeated as he nodded. "Sometimes we need harsh truths and the support of friends to help us face them." The unwelcomed bile from his own memories rose up when he decided he would protect Juste. He had decided that bookish Juste just wasn't the type of man his ancestor Simon was and so Maxim would be the Simon of their time... And Juste was always just too nice to put him in his place.
Until he was left with no other option.
"So Jessica died in the spring and when we went to her funeral I started getting sick... Lord Dracula? Where are your eyes..."
'In the spring... Jessica died in the spring and Reba got 'sick'... nonononono she has allergies. She could LITERALLY POP A PILL and be 'fine'...!?' It also meant she needed to not be around any of the plant demons, until they figured out what her allergies 'were'. Thoughts that were running on the background of Soma's thoughts. The front of it just running on a treadmill of ever increasing rage.
:Reba, dear. I'm afraid you're not sick, odds are you just have what the rest of the world considers 'allergies'. But I have doctors here who can do a proper check up on you after we're done with this interview.:
After all there were many, many, doctors murdered over the centuries, even his wife was one... 'But her training was far too dated...'
"Dearest could you come here for a moment? I would ask something of you?" Soma called out into the air.
Air that stirred as his wifes' soul began to materialize, she settled by his side with this indescribable joy filling her heart as he turned to watch her appear. How many centuries had she done this? Answered his cry for her presence only for his rage to block his vision of her? "Yes my beloved?" He was so adorable as a doll!
"Could you speak to the doctors and healers of the castle. I need one who is recently dead within the past century. I need an expert of recent diseases." He asked while Reba continued to inquire if everything was ok.
"Our Lord speaks to his Lady Wife... Please be mindful," the lavender maid in the back answered in a whisper.
Reba paled and covered her mouth while her eyes darted about looking desperately for the 'wife'. 'She's here too? But how do I know when she's here or not?'
"Ahh Soma you might want to address Reba's growing panic?" Soleli suggested as the flecks of firelight danced off the trail of tears that began spilling down Reba's face.
The bright gems that served as Soma's 'eyes' popped back into place as Soma turned to look at the girl. :Is something the matter? And do be honest, I have little tolerance for lies or deception.:
His mouth turned into an 'x' as his brain, and wife's ghostly hand, smacked his senses as he realized how rude that was. 'That was old me, that was old me. Sure I don't like being lied to either but I would... no before I would let her lie and kill her out right... Of all the stupid things to pick up from the original Dracul besides the name...' Soma mentally lamented. Regret that he had allowed so much of his own original personality to melt away into these grandiose designs.
Reba had gone white before lowering her head, "I'm sorry, I didn't know your wife was in here and I started just running my mouth..." She began unable to see Soma's replies as she was too busy staring at the desk edge in front of her.
With that her life began to spill out more quickly than before as she recounted the days being trapped in the compound. As she continued, Soma was taken how the girl was rather demure yet so determined. The child 'had' extended family not part of the cult that if she discovered them she would have been able to escape 'to'. Only for her to encounter Fortners' own cult online fishing for members...
She looked up at that point and saw Draculas' words scrolling by.
:Its ok, my Lady Wife died ages ago and it is her ghost in the room, she didn't manifest so you could see her. I'm not upset...:
The information the castle had on Reba was consistent with what she recounted, her interactions with Fortners' cult was simple. She wasn't pulled into the 'deeper' part of the cult the way her parents were with their cult. Reba described a life of the outliers, she was a member, but never got informed of the fact that her cult was performing Black Masses. Well until they were on their way to well.. the 'church outside'.
:Reba did you ever hear of the Black Masses that were being performed during this and last year?:
Reba blinked then gave this slow awkward shrug, "I knew of it in the sense my parents Leaders would discuss 'the work of the Devil against God'. But I had no idea about it being us until Francine came and got me and only then it was from listening to other members talking."
She paused as Dracula's eyes flashed red for a moment, and she found herself swallowing painfully in concern. In front of her the desk began to ripple on the surface as the top of a pitcher began to rise up. "Oh!" Polished silver filigreed, the internal surface rippled with clear water as a cup rose up as well before a whole formal tray ended up on the top of the desk.
Reba blinked in awe of the tray, since when she was in the kitchen the servants did similar but nothing ever had a liquid 'in' it. Curiosity got the better of her as she began to examine the metal and its cool to the touch surface. "Until I came here I never saw such power."
:The one thing God and I have a solid agreement on about mankind as a whole is that Man is like wind. You eternally seeks the path of least resistance, you desire not to do the work to attain your goals and will use each other to get what you seek. It usually balances out in the end though, what one person's vices the other has the virtue. In your sisters' case, your parents chose prayer over, oh going to the doctors or trying to actively save her through modern medicine. It is in this day and age possible to survive the cancer that killed her. If they ever bothered to make the effort to TRY to save her instead of just praying the cancer away. Man can attain great heights, yet because they have a limited span of life any great work is left unfinished sometimes for millennium before they attain anything. More over the lust for immortality clouds many a judgement...:
:Did I just say 'many a'?: Soma turned to look at the marquee above his head and watched his words scrolling by. 'Yes, yes I did. I sound like an old man again...' He quietly fumed as he settled back into his seat and rested his face in his hands. Yet over the edges of his felt fingers he saw this look on Reba's face. Her eyes wide and watering as though something he said just struck a strong nerve and he didn't need to guess what it was.
"She... she could have lived too?" Reba's voice shook as she thought back to her balding, skeletal sister. The way the clothes hung off her, sinking between the bones of her rib cage... "But mom and dad loved Jessica... Why would they... If they could have saved her why... And what about me? You said I'm fine... Why wasn't it me? Why am I ok?"
'You're not really fine... I mean saying 'allergies is comparable to cancer' is such a gross oversimplification. But you both really do have the 'your body is overachieving in the worst possible way' issue you're just not the fatal edition of that...' Soma mused as he willed some muffins and slices of cake to the table.
"Now now, you were a child and are still a child. Yours is not the place to bear the burden of responsibility in these matters. What happened to your sister was horrible yes, but it is your duty now to live a good life so that when you die you may see her again. Recount all the good things you did so as to make her proud." The maid offered as she stepped forward to pour some cool water into the cup and hopefully calm the child down.
'Because intentionally allowing cancer to kill your kid cuz you think God is going to Magic Zap the cancer away? Just because you pray really nicely? That gets you a one way ticket straight to hell and then I can start interrogating...' Soma thought as he was forced to remember that yes. A young girl died because a pair of idiots joined a 'LooL' Cult and thought praying was more powerful than proven medical procedures. Sure it was never a 100% guarantee but put in the effort!
"Beloved your fangs."
"Mortals make me so angry dearest."