Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"So. Wait a moment... You're my 'wife'?"
That... wasn't expected to happen.
Elizabetha never anticipated that her Lord Husband would see her 'recognize her' out of the clear blue. He had casually strolled by the portals for years. Suddenly here he was staring at her, with the most floored expression he could possibly have. In his blue eyes she could see recognition blossom as he studied her face. 'Oh beloved...' the silence in her chest seemed to once more be filled with the beat of her heart. The fluttering that came when her beloved recognized her, even as she realized how terrible a thing it was.
He didn't need to recall his marriage if it put his present life at risk. So she turned her gaze down at Leon who stood at Mathias' side. Though the lion was staring up at Mathias in silence, Leon knew he wasn't to reveal anything. Nor was he one for letting her down, meaning that Mathias recognized her on his own. 'Mathias what have you been up to?'
One of the portals that showed the shrine was currently open though, and the shrine was a soothing sight for her. Never had she seen this different country when she lived, or had seen after she died until the Belmonts sealed him away. While it wasn't her homeland with its endless trees, it was beautiful in its own way. The hill had living trees, the shrine was peculiar yet she could study the trappings of this faith. There was a cleansing pool that she enjoyed relaxing near by. There was a small waterfall that it was connected to, with the only problem being occupation.
Idle sight seeing had revealed over time that the area was used during a cleansing ritual, and while she normally loved to sit and relax near it. Well it was the height of rudeness to watch someone while they were being cleansed.
So it was with great alarm when she glanced in to see what appeared a Dark Child made of eyes. Only for the voice to reveal it as the medium who was distant kin to Leon. The eyes blinked rapidly forcing an irritant of dark mist through the pupils of the eyes. Neatly snipped by each blink of the eye.
There was a floating dog thing that was hovering just above the ground and between the two of them... "Death! I have need of your guidance!" Because if there was ever anything good to come out of being dead, a spirit, and the lady wife of the lord of the castle. It was the instant access to information that would otherwise be denied her. Due to her lack of training in the mystic arts there really wasn't anyone else that she could confide in.
"Is there a problem Lady Elizabetha?" Death asked as It began to materialize into the room, the swirl of darkness solidifying into robes. While the glow of sun bleached bones peeked out as Deaths attempt at a body appeared behind her.
"Yes, are you able to see the eyes covering that man?" She asked her own eyes morbidly fixated on the blinking eyes.
Death floated closer to the portal and hovered low enough to gaze into the world of the living. The soft emerald glow of living energy from the plants and the light that was the soul of a human, for a moment It pondered the term 'eye'. Though recalling how a mouth worked... it might have made some form of a visual sense. "Lady Elizabetha it is eating his soul."
"Pray forgive me, but 'what'?" Elizabetha blurted out in alarm, turning to look over at the skeletal visage she had long since gotten used to conversing with.
"The spirits that were in the seal are eating his soul, consuming the natural darkness that exists within all living humans. However; its better to call it a parasite and when it is done devouring the darkness it should continue onto the rest of it. As these spirits can't tell the difference."
Worms eating through a corpse came to mind sending Elizabetha into convulsive shivers from the mental image. "Why? How could they do that?"
"Well the seal contains negative spirits, but they are not the same as the souls already here so the Castle has not granted them entry. If I were to guess, it would be that they are trying to burrow into a host body so they can enter the castle proper." Death answered before turning to look down at the Lady of the Castle. Noting her raised eyebrow and that this wasn't something she would have encountered. The Castle accepted whole souls, not these splintered shards.
"You're 'guessing'?"
"As is often the case these 'spirits' were flecks of human souls cast off to cleanse the rest of the soul. These flecks were banished into the seal as part of the shrines' routine process and congregating in the Seal. Well like calling unto like these flecks formed into these things that you're now bearing witness to."
"So much like the Frankenstein monsters that occasionally appear. Pieces of dead humans cobbled together to create that?" She inquired, though she readily accepted that Death wouldn't be able to yea or nay it. The Entity could not see anything beyond life forces unless it attempted a full human form, otherwise to retain its pure impartial nature meant it was eternally blind to the the living. Sure Death could see her, she was dead, and it could see any soul belonging to the dead. But that was that. Elizabetha closed her eyes in mild disgust at the sight of the horrid things, it was creepy enough to make her shiver. "Will that cleansing ritual help?" She asked finally glancing back over at Kazu.
"Yes, my lady," Death answered as it rested its scythe against its shoulder. "About the damage to the castle?"
"Have you been able to discern what inflicted them upon the Castle?" Elizabetha inquired looking up at the looming Entity.
'Well that is a loaded question...' Death thought as it gazed down at the Lady. "It appears to be a response to attempts at tampering with the Young Masters' seal."
It watched as the Lady's head tilted a bit in curiosity, wary of what she would pick up on and ask about. "The seal's threads are no different than normal thread a seamstress would use is it not? Merely wrapped about the castle, not physically 'part' of the Castle correct?"
The grand entry hall wasn't really empty, she noted those who were about its vast expanse. She could see several small groups of servants mopping up the spilled blood from a large jagged crack that rose up from the ground to the ceiling. Giant Bat was holding a maid with its large nimble toed feet as she struggled against the blood coming from the top of the crack.
The spirits who would normally manifest as candles and other little aids for the would be hunter were drifting along. Casually strolling along huddled together in conversations that made the hall feel more alive than it had in ages. Their clothes were varied through all the ages ensuring she could never call any particular style as 'modern'.
For centuries all the spirits akin to herself strove to work towards helping the vampire hunters who came through the Castle. Now with the change of her lord husband, everyone drifted into new patterns. Yet somehow there was something happening to her living family members that were tearing cracks into the Castle... "Death, if something happened to destroy the castle completely, what would happen to us?"
She waited for an answer, going as far as to look up at the skeletal face of Death and found no answer forth coming. Indeed Death, upon seeing her look up, cast its gaze to some seemingly random area. "Death. I'm asking a question."
"My Lady, I assure you that if I knew the answer I would give it. However, I am not privy to such lofty information. I merely ferry the souls," Death answered after a time. Manifestation of, God of, Death bore many a title but even if it represented the inevitability of lifes' end. There were still matters that exceeded its level of awareness.
Elizabetha nodded realizing that perhaps she had been leaning a bit too hard on Death's vast knowledge. Sooner or later they were bound to hit walls of limitation as her Lord Husbands' change was now uncharted territory. So long as it was kept that way at least. It was clear that her son's absence was due to a desire to force Mathias to return to the Castle and his old role. But if they failed, how would the castle continue changing in reaction to 'Soma'.
Even learning about her had not roused the response she had expected, his surprise had less to do with the portal rather than her existence. Clearly he recalled her as his spouse. But as either as Elizabetha or Lisa? 'It is clear I made a mistake revealing myself. I had assumed, clearly incorrectly, that my lord husband could still neither see or remember me.' Yet it only took one look and he seemed to instantly recognize her. Or maybe it was that she was 'here' and not in any type of here after that he might have thought of.
Though as a spirit perhaps it would hold him back from more... extreme responses. 'But if that's the case how will I handle our son? I still wish not for Adrian to know I am here, but what is to stop Mathias from telling him? Its clear he relies on Adrian for insight and would report in on such a discovery.'
The concern she felt had yet to leave her expression as she discreetly looked away from Kazu's ritual cleansing. 'He's helping control his fathers' power, but if Mathias learns of their bond. What then?' The seething rage that had consumed Mathias that day when the castle was sealed in the eclipse was about Adrian.
The lid of the coffin laid split neatly in two, the walls bore cracks and chunks of wood had also been broken off. There were not many of such coffins, but they were all singularly in their purpose as a bed for Adrian should he visit his home. It was distressing to see the symbol of her son's presence broken upon the floor. Given how her husband had followed the more apathetic path after their last confrontation.
It was clear that Mathias had listened and did refrain from his rage against the humans at her behest. But how would he react if he saw the coffins broken? Absent was fine, their son lived elsewhere, but what did 'broken' coffins portend?
"Death!" she had fled the room seeking out the only being she could communicate with who might have some inkling of an answer. The clock tower was already in place and was the strangely favorite place of Death. While the symbolism wasn't lost on her, it was that Death did not have a very 'cordial' relationship with the time travelers that made her often pause.
Her rush through the many halls and rooms of the castle finally came to an end as she reached the clock tower. Left with only figuring out 'which' part of the tower was now Death's chosen haunt. The ticking of the clock coupled with the soft metallic thud of metal gears moving together made it near impossibly to hear herself think.
In one such expansive room she called out to Death and was rewarded with a very quick response. "You called for me?" Death asked as its scythe materialized in the room. Its presence required for the ritual at the moment.
"My sons' coffins are all broken! They haven't appeared in centuries since last he walked these halls. But why are they broken now?"
"Oh... Oh that," Death replied, its tone distracted. As though her concern didn't warrant its full attention. But if it didn't... "The Young Master appears to be returning to the Castle."
"He's returning?" Her elation at the possibility of her sons' return distracted her from the annoyance from being spoken down to.
After that the coffins never repaired themselves, and were gone again once the seal was in place. Until the first and only time the Castle started leaving the seal, in which case it had been her husbands' reincarnation who used those rooms. He'd use the rooms as a place to seeming think without threats from the servants. Even if he hadn't known at the time who he was, she recognized him in those moments. Those distant gazes he would have as he became lost to his own thoughts, where the expressions of cruelty or apathy melted away.
Now they were replaced with sadness or loneliness. Emotions that seemed a little off for a new body, perhaps it was the weight of his situation. He had been among several people brought to the castle, one of three who did not expect to be brought to an European castle out of nowhere. The military man was decidedly.. He was friendly, loud, nothing like what her husband ever dealt with that she had met. So watching Mathias interact with the large man had been enjoyable.
Much as the first time she met her Lord Husband after she reincarnated herself.
It had started out such a beautiful day, perfect for her lessons on medicinal herbal gathering. With a basket and small knife she had set out with full intentions to gather the herbs on the list left her for her next lesson. Her own selection of herbs were only now starting to bud and lacked the roots that she needed. There had been clouds in the sky yes, but only white, fluffy, happy clouds that didn't indicate the terrible series of storms that had just passed through the area the day before.
So the low rumble that cascaded into a loud roar was enough to startle Lisa into standing up from her herb gathering. Snatching up her basket and knife she began running as fast as her clothes and shoes allowed. While in the distance she could see glimpses of the homes from the village amid the towering pine trees. But more importantly the river and the bridge that straddled it was clear and on display for her. As she ran she could see the waters start swelling in the river. Followed by a crashing fist of white water as the bridge was knocked out of the way. The old wooden bridge was nothing against the force of the raging river. Signally that the dam had been broken during the storm and there could be bodies in that water.
Now she was stranded.
The wooden bridge she normally used was gone now, a roaring rage of water rushed by her instead. The flooded river was wide, consuming the whole of the bridge and spilling onto the grounds on the sides. 'If this bridge is down then the next bridge is at least three days ride... what do I do?' No other villages were near by, she was alone with no means to survive outside in the wilds while she traveled... With only that lone castle between her village and the next one that might afford her any shelter.
'But even with the castle as an in-between, with a force this strong the odds are that their bridge is also out.' The mounting concern forced her to turn her gaze down to the herbs she had collected. The castle stood upon a towering hill, overlooking a vast lake as well, but while there was a village on the other side of it.. It was a fairly distant one for her situation. 'Maybe if God be good, a traveling merchant will come this way. If nothing else it would be company to be had.'
Leaving her only with a need for shelter, a woman alone forced to sleep outside was never a safe decision. Her spring dress, while comfortable during her search for herbs and mushrooms would be worthless for keeping her warm at night. Not to mention possible thievish elements that could take the opportunity of a woman alone on the road.
Ultimately meaning she would have to see what the castle had to offer in terms of shelter. 'Its abandoned since Lord Dracul died and no one has taken claim of it. Though its a bit odd I would think, its large and been abandoned for longer than I have lived. Yet it is far too well maintained. Even if no one lives there, someone is taking time and money to maintain it. I guess I just need to hope that who ever maintains it is visiting and takes pity on me.'
The castle was dark and foreboding yes, but from a distance she couldn't see any signs of collapse. In fact for the most part the castle looked maintained enough to be lived in. Perhaps it was a king? Which brought to mind possible shelter. If no one lived there, or there was a small abandoned room she could hide in. Perhaps she could take shelter until the next day? 'No point in thinking about it though, if I want to reach the castle before night falls I need to start walking now.'
As she walked the only thing she 'did' end up thinking about was if the rumors of a vampire living in the castle were true. A rumor since there was no signs of feeding or signs of monsters in the area. 'What did Father say again? Place a rose on the coffin of a vampire and they can't leave it?' With that in mind she began scouring the area for any random roses she might find.