AMoS Chapter 5-6

[eiahmon]

Title: A Moment of Stupidity Part 5: 1535 - 1568
Rating: R for language, and mentions of RAPE and M/M SLASH. Don't like, then don't read.
Disclaimer: Castlevania and its characters and situations are the sole property of Konami. I am making no money or profit off of this fanfiction and no copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: AU. What if Joachim Armster had lived through his fight with Leon Belmont? What might have been different? Well hang on, because Joachim is going to tell you all about it. From his kidnapping and forced turning to his rescue from the ruins of Walter's castle, and from Trevor's birth and to Richter's death of old age, he tells all - and blames it all on Leon while he's at it.
Section Summary – Part 5 goes from Trevor's funeral to Liron's death.

6.
Ghosts

It was a widening of the bond from Hector's end that woke me later. I groggily raised my head and sat up, and my senses quickly informed me that it was nearly sunset again, so I'd slept through the rest of the night and most of the day. I looked at Hector to see him stirring, and his eyes blinked open and looked around the room in confusion for a moment before they focused on me.

"Joachim?" His voice was little more than a feeble sounding rasp, and he tried to sit up. I moved from the chair to sit on the edge of the mattress and stopped him.

"Be still, Hector."

He groaned as he went limp. "What happened to me?"

I gently smoothed his hair back from his forehead. "The Belmont wards took exception to you creating an Innocent Devil -"

Hector's eyes flew open. "Isaac!" He tried to sit up again. "Isaac, are you okay?" The Innocent Devil walked up the bed and laid down next to Hector, with its head on his chest. Hector raised one shaking hand and gently stroked its eye ridges. "I'm so glad that you're not hurt."

I frowned in annoyance. "You'd best be glad that you're not dead instead, Hector. The wards saw your dark power as a threat and attacked you. The only reason you survived was because Liron powered them back just in time."

Hector ignored me; all of his attention was on his dragon, and he was petting it and whispering to it. My annoyance increased, and the urge to haul him over my lap and paddle him until he howled was difficult to resist. Since he'd admitted to me that Actose's children had been rather fond of doing that to him, it was something that I would have rather avoided, but still...

I abruptly stood up from the chair and walked out of the room, and he didn't notice that I had left. I went hunting while I tried to calm my rising anger. Kerwin was right about one thing; I didn't want to discipline Hector while I was angry. I then went to Matatias' rooms and spent some time with him before he went to bed, and it was only then that Hector noticed my absence. I felt his confusion over the bond, and his confusion increased when he realized that I was angry with him. I could also feel his thirst, so I went back to feed him.

His entire face was a question mark when I walked back into the room, and he hesitated before he reached for me. I let him drink, and then I plopped him back into bed and tucked him in.

"What happened?" he asked quietly, and I only shook my head.

"Not now, Hector. We'll discuss it later. Go to sleep."

I walked out of the room without another word and ventured off towards my other house. It was as it was when I had left it, though a heavy layer of dust covered everything. There were no candles or lamps or furniture because I had taken everything with me when I moved onto the Belmont lands, but it would do for now, until I could rebuild my house there.

But... as I walked through the empty rooms, I found myself assaulted by memories around every corner. I hadn't been back since before Trevor's passing, and I kept seeing him everywhere I looked. There he was doing his studies at the small desk in the library, raiding the kitchen pantry for a late night snack, curled up on the couch in front of the fireplace while wrapped in a quilt, sleeping deeply in his bed, tangled up in the blankets with his hair over his face...

I sighed heavily. Maybe coming back hadn't been the greatest idea.

"Joachim?" I didn't need to look behind me, only Silvanus put off that kind of presence.

I turned to face him and noted that he was carrying a small bag in his hands. "What is it?"

He looked at me for a second. "You're crying, Joachim." he said gently, and I reached up in surprise and wiped at my eyes. My fingers came away wet, and I let my hand drop to my side.

"I just..." I sighed heavily as my throat threatened to close up. "I keep seeing Trevor everywhere in here."

He gave me an understanding smile, one that was tinged with sadness. "I know. That is why I let Walter have the castle once I declared him independent of me. There were too many ghosts for me to continue living there."

"Did they ever go away?"

"In time. Being away from the castle gave me a chance to distance myself from the memories, but I still avoided going there if I could help it."

"It explains why I never saw you there."

"I quit visiting once Kerwin grew up." He held up the bag in his hand. "Anyway, enough about that. I have everything we were able to save from your house here."

My head reared back slightly in surprise, and I gave the small bag a dubious look. "In there?"

Silvanus gave me another smile, but this one had a mischievous edge to it. "You forget, child, that I've been practicing magic since I learned to walk and talk. I can do many things with it that I normally don't advertise, such as this for example."

He opened the bag, and then released it to float in midair. He made a shooing motion towards it, and various tiny objects started to float out of it, while I stared in mute astonishment. The objects, which I quickly recognized as furniture and other furnishings from my house, steadily grew in size as they moved away from the bag, until they were full size by the time they settled down on the floor against the walls. There were also a few new things, like a new bed for example that floated off towards the bedroom, and there were two trunks that I assumed contained the books from my library that had survived. They floated off towards the library, which confirmed my assumption. Lastly came the portrait of Trevor, which he resized and handed to me directly.

"It's a good thing you asked me to cast those protective spells over it." he said. "Otherwise it likely would have taken damage. I took the liberty of carving runes into the frame and writing them on the back of the canvas itself to further anchor the protection, so it could possibly survive a house fire at this point."

"Let's hope that's never tested." I said as I accepted the painting. I spent a moment looking at Trevor's painted face, and I smiled faintly despite my dark mood. "I wonder how long before I can rebuild my other house."

"Liron and Adrian are already working on that."

I looked up at Silvanus. "So soon?"

"The Belmonts love you, Joachim, and they want you to be come home as soon as possible. Liron thinks they can rebuild it while reusing much of the original material, and he said that if all goes well, you'll be able to come back by the end of the month."

That was less than three weeks away. "That's not so bad." I replied. "Though it wouldn't be necessary if Hector hadn't done something so reckless..."

Silvanus held up a hand to stop me. "Joachim, I want you to think of something first. Hector is magical, very magical. Yes, Devil Forging is a branch of Necromancy, but it is still magic and very powerful magic at that. As with any magical talent you must use it, or it will use you. Refusing to do so can be physically and mentally painful and can even lead to insanity. Yes, Hector should have told you and sought your permission, but it was likely that he had no choice in the matter. He had to use his power or risk causing pain to himself. Think of that when you confront him, and don't discipline him in anger."

"You're the second one to tell me that. Do you really think that I would hurt him?"

"You have a temper too, Joachim. You control it better than Walter controlled his, but you still have it, and you are a bit.. emotional over anything in regards to Trevor. Hector just wrecked the house that Trevor built for you, which has forced you to return to a house that is full of memories of him, so yes, I can see you losing control of your anger and doing something that you will regret later."

I sighed: I couldn't deny it, even though I wanted to. I still remembered the time I had raised my hand to Hector. I had stopped myself, but I will never forget the terror in his eyes then, and it was something I never wanted to see again.

Silvanus gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze, and then he departed, while I turned my attention to putting my house in order.

******

I returned to Kerwin's house in the morning to find Hector sound asleep, and I sat down on the bed beside him and gently ran my hand over what was left of his hair. I used my other hand to pull a handkerchief from my pocket and carefully wipe away the blood that had dribbled out of his nose during the night.

"He was scared, Uncle Joachim." came Matatias' voice from behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see him standing at the foot of the bed.

"What do you mean, child?"

"He knows that you're mad at him, and it scared him. I heard him crying last night. Daddy went to him, and he went back to sleep after a little while."

I turned away and closed my eyes, suddenly feeling like a heel. My child had cried last night, and I had been so absorbed in what I was doing that I hadn't even noticed it. Celia came by then, and she ushered Matatias out of the room as Hector stirred. His eyes blinked open, and his thirst could be felt through the bond. I scooped him up and let him drink, but I didn't put him back in bed afterward.

"You're angry at me." he said in a small voice.

I sighed and gave him a gentle squeeze. "I am." I said quietly.

"Are you going to... punish me?"

"Yes, once we've returned home tonight."

"Oh." He paused for a long moment. "Could you... do it now and get it over with?"

"No, now is neither the time nor the place for such a thing."

"Will it hurt?"

"I'm sure it will sting a little."

"Oh," He shivered. "You're not going to... give me back to Actose are you?"

"Never, Hector. You are never going back to that bastard."

I felt him relax slightly. "Okay. What are you going to do then?"

"You'll find out tonight." I laid him down and stood up to fetch what I needed to change him. His bleeding had reverted from a slow trickle back to the heavy flow it had been right after I'd rescued him, and I hoped it would be temporary. He didn't fuss or protest as I took care of that, wary of angering me further, and he relaxed under my touch as I soothed him to sleep. Even in sleep though, I could feel his worry about the upcoming punishment.

That evening, once he was awake, I fed him again, wrapped him in blankets and took him home.

"I thought you said we were going home." he said in confusion and more than a little fear once we'd stepped inside. The Innocent Devil followed us, and it quickly found a spot in front of the parlor fire to curl up.

"We are home." I said as I sat down with him on my lap, though I had to hold him up. "At least for now." I gave him a stern look. "Do you remember what happened, Hector? Do you remember what you did?"

I felt his fear increase, and he bowed his head. "I created an Innocent Devil."

"And?"

"Without your permission."

"And?"

"Within the Belmont wards."

"Keep going, child."

He looked up at me in confusion. "I don't know what happened after that."

"What do you think happened? You used dark power within wards designed to attack such things. What do you think they did?"

"They attacked... me?" he replied as his face paled.

"Yes, they attacked you, and I was caught in the backlash since I was nearby." Hector's eyes widened in horror, but I cut him off before he could say anything. "They also destroyed the house while attempting to destroy you. The only reason both of us are here right now is because Liron managed to prevent the wards from using their full power. If he had been a second too slow, both of us would have died."

"Is it completely gone? I didn't mean for that to happen!"

"I know you didn't mean for that to happen, and no, it's not completely gone, but it's so badly damaged that it will have to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up. It also took Silvanus hours to settle the wards back down."

Hector bowed his head, and I could feel genuine remorse through the bond. "I'm sorry." he whispered.

"You should be. What you did was completely reckless, Hector. Things could have been so much worse. The Belmonts could have been injured, the wards acting out could have attracted unwanted attention, or they could have caused damage to other houses as well, houses that had people sheltering in them."

"I'm sorry!"

I grabbed him by the arms and shook him a little. "Sorry's not enough here, Hector. Don't you realize this? Don't you understand! You could have died, Hector! You could have died!" I felt a few tears run down my face, and Hector began to cry as well as I crushed him to me. "I could have lost you, child!" I closed my eyes against the tears as I held Hector tight. I didn't want to think of losing him, and I kept telling myself that he was safe in my arms, that he was alive and able to cry out his remorse.

"Are you going to punish me?" he asked in a tiny voice after a few minutes.

"Would you if you were in my position?" He closed his eyes and nodded, and I used one finger to tip his head back to look at me. "Hector, I am not Actose or his children. I'm not doing this because I enjoy causing your pain. I do not like hearing you cry, but this has to be done. Once it's over with, we'll never speak of it again, alright?"

Hector nodded miserably, so I stood up and carried him out of the room.

A few minutes later, I found myself seated on the edge of the bed, cradling a bawling Hector in my arms. As much as I had been reluctant to do so, knowing what I knew about his treatment at the hands of Actose's children, I had paddled him just as I had Trevor when he had misbehaved. I'd made Trevor stand up to take his licking, but Hector of course was unable to stand, so I'd laid him face down on the bed, and that had caused him to give me a look of pure terror. He'd actually sighed in relief when I'd picked up the paddle, and I'd found myself dreaming of all the nasty ways I could end Actose's existence for a moment.

Hector had taken the paddling better than I had expected. He hadn't squirmed, kicked, or tried to get away. Instead he had just laid there and taken it, though he'd started wailing by the third stroke, despite me taking care not to hit him too hard. Once it was done, I'd set the paddle aside, replaced his diaper, pulled his nightshirt down, wrapped him in a blanket, and scooped him up into my arms.

"It's done now, little one." I said gently as I rocked him. "I've trust you've learned your lesson?" He nodded as a sob shook his body. "If you feel the need to create another Innocent Devil in the future, just tell me, and I'll take you away from the wards to do it, alright?"

He nodded again, and I but deeply into the base of my left thumb and offered it to him. He'd already been fed for the night, but drinking the blood of the sire is every bit as comforting to a young vampire as suckling is to a human infant. He grabbed a hold of my hand and wrist and started drawing from the bite without hesitation, and I just held him and allowed him to drink as long as he wanted. He was much quieter when he stopped drinking a short while later, but he did not let go of my hand and wrist until he fell asleep a few minutes after.

"Goodnight, little one." I whispered as he relaxed into my arms with a soft sigh. "I love you." He smiled slightly and curled close to me, which caused me to smile a little as well. I tucked him into bed, smoothed his hair back from his forehead, kissed him goodnight, and then went to go hunt. When I returned and climbed into bed beside him, to my surprise he snuggled close to me without hesitating. He tucked his head under my chin and snuggled into my embrace after I pulled the blankets over us, and he slept quietly through the night without any disturbance.

In the early hours of the morning, when I rose to hunt again prior to feeding Hector his breakfast, I spotted the Innocent Devil curled up at Hector's feet, asleep. I had told him to order it to stay in the living room the previous night, since I didn't fancy it setting me on fire while coming to its master's defense. It was here to stay, however, so I would have to ask him about it later. What had he called it the other day? Isaac...

I frowned in thought because I had a sudden idea as to what soul he had used to create it, but I pushed that aside for the moment. I had to hunt and then feed Hector. Only then could I get some answers.

He was waking up when I returned, and he reached out to me like he always did. He needed help to sit up on my lap and drink from my neck, and he was shaking slightly by the time he finished. I smiled slightly as he nestled close and closed his eyes, and he reached out with one trembling arm to the Innocent Devil, who walked up and rubbed its head against his hand. He scratched its eye ridges, and it made a sound not unlike the purring of a cat.

"And who is this?" I asked.

"This is Isaac." Hector replied quietly.

"Is there a particular reason you chose that name?"

"Because..." Hector hesitated for a moment. "Because.. I used Isaac's soul to make him." He looked up at me. "When we went to the mountains, I found Isaac's soul there. He was so lost and confused. He didn't understand what had happened to him; he wasn't even aware that he had died. He saw me, and he started talking to me, trying to understand why everyone was ignoring him. He didn't understand that it wasn't that he was being ignored, it was that no one but me could see him. I... I couldn't leave him there, so I caught him and carried him within my own soul until I was able to make the Innocent Devil to house him." He rubbed the dragon's chin. "It was the only peace I could give him. Devil Forgemasters... cannot send the dead on to the next life like Necromancers can. We can only summon. Now, in this form, he won't remember anything of his previous life. He'll be safe from the memories, and now all he cares about is me."

"Well, I'd never expected to have a pet dragon in the house..." I said with a wry smile, and Hector chuckled quietly. "How will he react to me?"

"However I tell him to."

"Can he feel me through you?"

"I don't know. I've never heard of a vampiric Devil Forgemaster before, but if he can feel you, he'll just ignore you, because you're not his master."

I reached out one hand to Isaac, and after a moment of sniffing, he lowered his head so I could scratch the top of it, and Hector smiled faintly at the sight. "In that case, welcome home Isaac." I turned my attention back to Hector. "What all does he eat?"

"Meat of any kind, it doesn't matter if it's beef, mutton, fish, or even if it's fresh, raw, cooked, or rotten. He'll eat it all." He yawned and rubbed at his eyes. "Why am I so tired?"

"Because the wards did a number on you and undid much of the healing you've achieved over the past few years." I replied as I laid him down and tucked him in.

"Oh," he said softly, suddenly subdued. He gave me a frightened look. "I'll get better again, won't I?"

"Let us hope so." I said quietly as I stood up. "Go back to sleep, Hector. I'll feed Isaac for you." I leaned over and kissed him and waited until he had fallen asleep before I ventured out into the kitchen.

******

Hector slept the rest of the day, waking only when I fed him in the evening, as well as the entire night. I fed Isaac twice, and I was relieved to learn that he was born housebroken, so I cracked open a window which allowed him to come and go as needed. He seemed content though to curl up next to Hector, and when distress from the bond woke me in the early morning hours, I found Isaac nuzzling his master and crooning quietly to him.

Hector was still asleep, but tears were running out of his eyes, soft little cries were escaping him, and he was clinging to Isaac. I propped myself up on one arm while I reached out with my other hand and gently rubbed his shoulder. Grief was flooding the bond from his end, and I sent him feelings of calm and safety. I didn't want to wake him because he needed plenty of rest to recover from the damage the wards had caused, and I thought it best just to send him into a deeper sleep, so he would not remember his distress later on.

It took him only a few minutes to quiet and settle down, and once he was calm, Isaac went quiet as well and went back to sleep. I laid back down and pulled Hector against me before I pulled the blankets back over us. I then reached out and lightly scratched Isaac on the head before I went back to sleep.

******

To my relief, Hector slowly regained the strength he had lost due to the wards' attack on him, and once he was well enough, we returned to the Belmont lands to check up on things. To my surprise, he apologized to Liron and Adrian without having to be told, and he was so upset that he was in tears by the end of it. Liron accepted the apology, and to my even greater surprise, he pulled Hector out of my arms and into his own and assured him that everything was all right.

"Yes, you made a mistake." he said. "But it's over and done with it, so we can go forward from here." He gently wiped Hector's tears away. "So no more tears, alright?" Hector nodded and scrubbed at his eyes, and Liron gave him a squeeze before he handed him back to me.

The reconstruction of my house was nearly finished, with only some finishing work on the interior left to be done, and it did my heart good to see it standing there by the lord's house. Adrian explained that they had been able to salvage about two thirds of the original material, as well as the foundation, which had survived unscathed. We would be able to return within a few more days.

I was glad to hear that, and so was my maid when I told her. I had given her the money to replace her things, but she more unhappy about being out in the middle of nowhere, miles from the nearest village. She, like all my other servants, was a descendant of August and Ella, but she did not have the same condition as them, so she could go out and about at will without any trouble.

******

Our last night in my second house, once Hector and the maid had gone to bed, I packed up everything, excluding the bed, and the clothes Hector would need for the move. I would move him last, once the sun was safely down, but everything else could go earlier. I was very happy to be returning home, and even more happy to be getting away from the memories of Trevor that still haunted the home that he had grown up in.

The Belmont children cheered when they came outside after their lessons and training were done for the day and found me seated on my porch with ginger squares and chilled cider at the ready, and within seconds it seemed, the porch was covered with them. Once Hector was up, and he had been fed and dressed, I brought him out as well. He curled up on my lap and laid his head down on my shoulder. The children then proceeded to chatter away to him about everything he had missed while we were gone, but once Isaac came out in search of his master, the children forgot about Hector completely.

I had to explain to them that Isaac was Hector's pet, and they were to leave him alone if they saw him around. With Hector's permission, Isaac received a lot of pats and head scratches, and the dragon soaked up the attention and preened, strutting across the porch like he was guarding a treasure horde, and puffing smoke out of his nostrils, which made the children squeal with delight.

"Well it looks like Isaac's personality isn't completely gone." Hector said wryly. "He always was an attention whore, especially when Lord Dracula was around." A mental command released Isaac to go hunt for his dinner, and the dragon flew off, much to the disappointment of the children. A few moments later, we heard a rabbit's scream, and not long after Isaac came back, looking pleased with himself. I shooed the children off, and the dragon curled up on the bench next to us to relax.

Hector burrowed down into his blanket, snuggled against me, and closed his eyes, and within a few moments, he was asleep, and he was quickly followed by Isaac. I held him for a while, before I stood up to carry him to bed, but when I moved, he stirred and blinked his eyes open.

"Joachim?" he mumbled sleepily.

"Hm? What is it, little one?"

Hector rubbed at his eyes for a second, and then he looked up at me. "Is Lord Belmont – Trevor – buried nearby?"

I couldn't completely contain my wince; I knew what he was going to ask. "He is. Why?"

Hector laid his head down. "May I.. visit him?"

"Have some things you would like to say to him as well?" Hector nodded silently, and I sighed. I didn't want to go back there, to the cemetery that I had avoided since Trevor's funeral, but... I couldn't deny Hector's request. I needed to face that place sooner or later anyway. Without a word, I carried him away from the house, across the grass, and down the path towards the cemetery, which someone had dubbed Hunters' Rest. I didn't know when the name had come about, but it had stuck, and even today, it still goes by that name.

When we entered the silent clearing, I forced myself to keep walking towards that particular spot under the tree, even though my heart was hammering away in anxiety. Hector must have picked up on my nerves, for he lifted his head and gave me a confused look. I didn't answer him. Instead I only plopped him down at the foot of Trevor's grave, and then I backed away hastily. Hector looked at me for a second, blinking, and then he turned his attention to Trevor's grave. Like I had before, I tuned out his voice while he spoke, though I used the bond to keep watch. I tried not to think of what state my godson's body would be in by that point. I'd seen plenty of bodies in Walter's castle in various stages of decay, so I was acutely aware of the path that decomposition took.

I went and sat down just inside the tree line, and I leaned back against the trunk of a large oak, while I watched Hector. The place was quiet save for Hector's voice and the quiet sigh of a breeze through the trees. The grass swayed gently with the breeze, and the moon shone down, giving the area an almost ethereal quality.

Trevor would have loved it, I thought, bracing myself for the stab of pain caused by thinking of him. I sighed quietly and closed my eyes. It had been eight years, and while the pain had dulled some, it stubbornly refused to leave me completely, and Silvanus had warned that it never would. I felt the breeze run its invisible fingers through my hair and sighed again.

I didn't know if it was due to my influence or his own vampiric ancestry, but Trevor had preferred the night over the day, and I lost track of all the times I caught him awake during the night, looking out the bedroom window through the stars. I had even once caught him sitting in the open front door, watching the darkened sky. He'd been nine then, and instead of sending him back to bed, I'd instead scooped him up, sat down on the stoop, and held him on my lap until he'd fallen asleep.

"During the day you can see everything," he'd once said with all the wisdom an eleven year old could muster, "At night, everything is hidden in shadow, so you can't see all the bad things, the ugly things. You can only see the beautiful things; the moon, the stars, and the silver light on the trees and grass."

I opened my eyes and looked up past the tree canopy at the night sky overhead. How right he had been.

"Joachim?" came Hector's voice. "Can we go home now?"

I stood up and walked towards him. "Are you done?" I asked quietly for a reason that I wasn't sure of. Maybe I didn't want to destroy the tranquility of the cemetery or something similar.

Hector nodded silently, and he reached up to me to be picked up once I was close enough. I carried him back to the house and put him to bed without a word spoken between us. Once he was asleep, I reversed my steps and returned to the cemetery.

I walked slowly up to Trevor's grave – I hadn't been back to it since the day of his funeral – and I wondered for a moment what I was doing. Seeing the grave again would only cause pain, which it did, but I ignored the ache in my heart and knelt down at the foot. I reached out and traced the letters of Trevor's name that were etched into the marker. I opened my mouth to say something, I wasn't sure what, but no words came. Instead I pushed myself to my feet and looked up at the starry sky for a moment while the breeze ruffled my hair and clothes, before I returned to the tree that I had sat under while waiting for Hector. I settled back down, leaned against the trunk, and enjoyed the beauty of the night. For a moment, I almost imagined I could feel Trevor nestled beside me.

Chapter 5-5 – Chapter 5-7
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