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Blood Is Chapter 14
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Do I really have to mention that I don't own Castlevania? If I did, we would have gotten to see Julius curbstomp Dracula, the storyline would have been neatened up a bit, and Dracula and Alucard would have just HUGGED already after the reveal in Lords of Shadow 2.
Summary: Lords of Shadow Continuity: AU to Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2: Trevor wasn't the only one that had the truth of his parentage kept from him by the Brotherhood.
14.
Gabriel kept his face to the wall as the woman that claimed to be his mother set his breakfast down on the night stand aside the bed.
"Are you thirsty, Gabriel?" she asked softly.
"I am quite capable of feeding myself, woman." he said evenly without turning around. "Leave."
"Gabriel..."
"Leave."
He heard a quiet sigh, followed by her footsteps walking towards the door.
"Call for me if you need me, Gabriel." she said quietly, and then she left the room. The door closed behind her, and he could hear her footsteps walking away.
Once he was certain that she wasn't going to turn around and come back, he turned around in bed and snatched the tankard off of the stand. He quickly drank down its contents and then tossed it across the room to land in a dark corner. He then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and curled up under the quilt again.
At least they had given him a comfortable bed and warm blankets, he thought as he settled down to try and sleep again. A babble of voices from a household that was waking up filled his ears, but he tuned them out and closed his eyes. He just needed to endure for a few days, then he would be on his own again, as it should be. With that thought, he quickly relaxed into sleep.
******
Breakfast was done, the creature was in its room as usual, Wolfram was in his study, and Edeline was in the nursery with the creature's child. Now was the perfect time.
"You are going to visit Lord Rosier and ask him for permission to court his daughter." Cordrin told his son as they stood together in front of the fireplace.
Adelar's eyes widened. "I'm WHAT!" A second later, his head rocked to the side as the father's hand met his son's cheek in a stinging slap. He glared at his father for a moment, but Cordrin returned the glare, and after a few seconds, Adelar was the one to lower his gaze.
"You are going to journey to Lord Rosier's estate and ask him for permission to court his daughter." Cordrin ground out through clenched teeth. "You're 33, Adelar, and should have married years ago. Questions are beginning to circulate about you."
"Questions? What kind of questions?"
"Whether you're an insult and offense to God for one."
"Because I'm not married? Why would that... Oh." The boy looked ill for a moment. "Can I at least ask about his younger daughter then? The older... she scares me sometimes."
Cordrin rolled his eyes. "I don't care which one you ask about. Just as long as you ask. While you are there you will realize that you had forgotten to deliver a letter for me, so you will ask Lord Rosier if his servants will take care of it." He handed a scroll case over, and Adelar took it as understanding dawned in his brown eyes.
"So this wouldn't have anything to do with that fact that the main Brotherhood compound is on Lord Rosier's land, would it?"
"Not at all." Cordrin replied, but his smirk belied his words. "Pack what you need quickly and leave as soon as that is done. The sooner you're on your way, the sooner your place as heir will be back in your hands."
"Yes, Father."
Adelar disappeared into his room then, and Cordrin sat down in the nearest chair to think. He would see the creature gone from the house, one way or another, but that still left the matter of its child to deal with. Even if the creature was gone, Wolfram could still name the child as his grandson and heir, so something would have to be done about it as well. He just wasn't sure what.
He leaned back in his chair and called for a servant to bring him some wine, and as he sipped at it, he began to plan.
Adelar would inherit, no matter what it took.
******
As the household gathered for lunch, Cordrin was quick to notice that his sister-in-law was actually joining them at the table for the first time since the creature's arrival, and he also took note of her pale, tear streaked face. Being rejected by the creature was painful apparently.
It was very difficult not to smile in front of his brother.
"Is Adelar not joining us?" Wolfram asked as the servants filed in.
"No," Cordrin said easily, "He has gone to ask Lord Rosier if he may court his daughter."
"Really?" Wolfram's eyes were alight with curiosity. "Well, I am glad to hear that. Some of the rumors were getting... uncomfortable. Hopefully he will be lucky enough to find one that makes him happy."
"As you have, Brother?" Cordrin couldn't keep the touch of sarcasm out of his voice.
Either Wolfram missed said sarcasm or he chose to ignore it. "And as you have as well."
"Indeed."
Cordrin returned his attention to the meal then and mentally calculated how long it would take Adelar to reach Lord Rosier's home. The Cronqvist house was three days from the border between their respective lands, and the other lord's house was a further two days beyond that. Adelar had left on horseback, accompanied by only a single guard for protection, so he would move much faster than if he were in a carriage, surrounded by guardsmen. Once he arrived, the letter would be able to be forwarded on to its destination within a few more days or so, if everything worked out the way he intended. That meant it would be at least eight days and nights before the letter would fall into its recipient's hands, and it would likely be eight more days and nights after that before he would see any sign of a response.
And if that failed, well... there were other ways of removing the creature from the house. Of course, going that route would force him to try one of the more drastic ways of removing its child as well, but Cordrin didn't really mind if it came to that. He had once helped arrange the disappearance of his own nephew, so getting rid of another unwanted child that was standing in his son's way would be easy enough.
******
After lunch, Wolfram checked on Gabriel to find him sleeping, and the empty tankard lying bent and battered in the corner. He wanted to reach out to Gabriel, hold him, assure him that he was home, that he was loved, but his son no longer invited touch like he once did, and Wolfram was wary of angering him. Fear of being attacked was part of it certainly, but he didn't want to upset Gabriel and give him any more reason to distrust them. A lifetime of being told that he had been an unwanted child dumped on a doorstep had certainly left an impression on him, and he was understandably wary of trusting them. He also had a viable point in that many of the noble houses would try and claim him to bring themselves fame after what he had done.
He sighed heavily; he didn't know how to make the boy trust them, or even if it was possible. He did walk up to the bed, brush Gabriel's hair out of his face, and whisper that he loved him, which prompted a pale, clawed hand to reach up and lightly squeeze his fingers before dropping back to the pillow. Wolfram smiled faintly as he left the room; there was still hope.
******
Gabriel found his patience sorely tested over the next three days. He never left the small room he was in, even though he was assured by the man that claimed to be his father that he was free to roam the house and grounds. The man's wife visited multiple times a day, despite his demands to be left alone, and he had to put up with her fussing over him, despite his growling and snarling whenever she tried.
At least, he thought as he waited for the household to settle down for the night, she had brought him something other than an under tunic to wear when he had asked. He didn't want to be running through the countryside half dressed after all, because he'd had all he could stand. He wasn't their missing son – if they even had one – and he certainly wasn't looking to be a member of anyone's family. He'd given up on that dream years ago. No, it was past time for him to go.
He didn't know where exactly he could go. The castle was out, even if he wanted to return to that cursed place. He couldn't return to the Brotherhood, not in his current state. They hunted creatures like him; they would likely kill him on sight...
He closed his eyes and swallowed a lump that suddenly appeared in his throat. He then took a shuddering breath and returned his attention to thinking on where to go.
He supposed, at least for the moment, he could return to his and Marie's small house. Unless someone else had taken it over, it was likely still standing, though it probably needed a bit of work if no one had tended to it over the winter. It would do for a short while though. He would probably only get a few days at most before someone thought to look for him there, but it would do while he tried to figure out where to go next.
He curled up on his left side under the quilt and closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. He knew that his "parents" would be checking on him before they went to bed, and he wanted them to believe that he was asleep. No sooner did he settle down then the door opened, right on time. The scent of blood, the man and the woman's touched his nose, and for a brief moment he wondered why it smelled familiar to him, but he pushed that thought aside as the woman approached the bed where he was lying.
A hand touched his cheek, and he swallowed the growl that wanted to come out at this invasion of his person.
"We're losing him, Wolfram." the woman said in a teary voice, and he felt a tear splash onto his cheek. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know if there is anything we can do, Edeline." her husband said, sounding just as upset as his wife. "We rescued him from the castle and cared for him as long as we could. I think that we just need to say that we did our best."
"He doesn't want us, Wolfram. Our son doesn't want us."
Her husband approached the bed then, and Gabriel wanted to scream for them to just leave him alone! He wasn't their son! He didn't need their false affection and concern!
"He's a grown man, Edeline, and we've been out of his life since he was fourteen days old. We were fools to hope that he would welcome us with open arms." They began to walk away, and Gabriel felt his heart wrench slightly when the woman began to cry. The door closed, and he sat up in bed and looked at where they had been. He could hear them going into their room next door, and the wall could not hope to block the sounds of the husband comforting his wife from his ears.
Why was he bothered about it? What in the world was wrong with him?
He'd heard enough through the walls over the past few days to know that he was in the manor house belonging to the Cronqvist family, the ones rumored to have abandoned him as an infant, a rumor that appeared to have some truth to it in reality. He knew vaguely where their house was located, even though he had never been on their lands before. Volpe and the other elders had never sent him here before, so he was unfamiliar with his location. Once he was outside though, and he had his directions sorted out, he would be able to find his way back home easily. Hopefully it wouldn't take that long, with as fast as he was capable of moving.
A few minutes later, he heard their voices go quiet and heard them getting into bed. Not longer after, their heartbeats slowed as they fell asleep, and he got out of bed himself and began to dress himself in the clothing he had been given. He then sat down on the edge of the bed and listened to the household around him. As the minutes ticked by, people moved to their beds, and he heard their heartbeats slowing into sleep. At some point, the two guards outside his door, switched out, and Gabriel had to hurriedly climb back into bed and pretend to be asleep as they checked on him, but soon he was once again alone in the room, while the rest of the house went quiet around him.
Sometime after midnight, the last servants went to bed, leaving only himself and his – he sneered – guards awake. Climbing out of bed again, he moved silently towards the window closest to the bed, the one that he had broken with his voice alone four days previously. The glass had been replaced the following day, and during repairs the hinges on the casement had been oiled, which meant they would move without making any noise that might alert someone.
He unlatched the window and pushed it open, and sure enough, it opened with no sound that could be detected by human ears. It made a very soft creak of the hinges as they moved, and just to be safe, he waited for a moment to see if anyone had heard that. The guards outside his door did not move or make any sound of the their own, so he easily hopped onto the sill and looked down.
He was in a second floor room, and the expansive grounds and gardens of the estate spread out before him. He glanced up at the sky, and saw the moon tracking across it, and a quick calculation based on the stars' position relative to the season told him that his window was facing north and that he needed to go northeast to reach his old home. A breeze lightly blew his hair back from his face, and he could smell the corn growing in the fields as he jumped out of the window.
He landed on his feet, and he spent a moment looking around, before he looked over his shoulder and up at the window he had just left. He heard no sounds from within, so no one had noticed anything yet, and every window in the house was dark. He nodded once in satisfaction, and then he turned towards the east and began to run, leaving the Cronqvist family behind him. As he ran, his heart began to ache, and a single tear ran out of his left eye for a reason that he did not know.
******
Cordrin was dressing himself, when he heard a scream from somewhere in the house. Even though he was only half dressed, he wandered out of his room towards the sound as the sound of running feet gave him a direction.
He found the door to the creature's room open, and his sister-in-law was slumped in Wolfram's arms, sobbing as the guards milled about in confusion. Just inside the door, Cordrin could see a tankard of blood spilled on the floor, likely dropped by Edeline when she screamed.
He reached out and snagged one of the servants by the sleeve. "What happened?"
"Lord Gabriel is gone." the wide eyed boy said in a stage whisper.
Cordrin only barely managed to keep the smile from his face. "Gone?" he asked, seeking clarification.
"The window's open." the boy said "And he's not in there."
Letting go of the child, Cordrin returned to his room to finish dressing, and once inside the privacy of his own space, he laughed out his delight.
******
Five days after leaving home, Adelar compulsively tightened his grip on the scroll case and straightened his posture as the door to Lord Joseph Rosier's study opened, allowing the man himself admittance.
"Lord Rosier," he said formally. "I come to ask for permission to court your daughter."
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Dark Heresy is the tabletop rpg of Warhammer 40K. You play as acolytes of the Imquisition in the Imperium of Man in the 41st Millenium, battling the Xenos (alien), the Heretic ('Witches', followers of the Ruinous Powers, etc), and the Daemonic. You even get Space Elves, and Orcs. It's futuristic fantasy/horror with a lot of investigation. Here's the website link: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=50.
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Speaking of haunted mp3 players, a friend and I are currently rping our CV/KH crossover with Aqua (her) and Juste (me) as characters, adn Juste is telling Aqua about Leon and Mathias. As I'm writing on it, WMP starts playing "Just To Get High"
He was my best friend
I tried to help him
But he traded everything, for suffereing
And found himself alone.
LOL!
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