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Blood Is Chapter 2-4
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.
A/N: So, I just finished doing an overhaul of the entire fic thus far. The story and characters have not changed in any way, but I adjusted the timeline to better suit the distances between places, changed character ages, reworded a number of small things, and fixed a large amount of typos. You can read on from here without losing anything, but if you see something that contradicts what you read before, then chances are it's something that was changed in the update.
4.
Gabriel tried to ignore the slight trembling of his hands as he read the letter that Master Liam had just handed him. His old teacher had warned him about the contents, but reading the words while hearing Volpe's voice in his head speaking them could in no way be prepared for.
My friend,
I understand your frustration with Gabriel and Trevor's presence in your home, but please be patient and wait. I assure you that once things are ready, they will both be removed. Gabriel has a destiny ahead of him, and he must be prepared to meet it, something that will not happen if he is in the custody of Lord and Lady Cronqvist.
Gabriel will need to be isolated, so his anger, rage, and grief will grow. Only then will his mind fracture under the strain of it all once more, molding him into the weapon that he is fated to be. Do not do anything to antagonize him; if he has a reason to be angry at you, then he will have a reason to come and attack you once his hatred has consumed him. Trevor will then deal with him once his tasks are complete. If Trevor survives the confrontation with his father, which is very doubtful, then he will be eliminated.
Do not trust Liam Quinn. Though he now heads the Brotherhood, he is working with Lord Cronqvist, and will throw you over to them if you approach him. Stay calm, be quiet, and have patience. Things will be back on track soon enough.
Gabriel closed his eyes as he laid the letter on his lap and swallowed the enraged roar that wanted to come out. Mother's hand came down on his shoulder and gently squeezed, which gave him the grounding needed to tamp down on his anger and open his eyes to look at Master Liam.
"Canny bastard didn't mention any names." Father said quietly as he read the letter himself.
No, Gabriel thought, he didn't, but it was still easy to guess who the letter was written to. After all, who was the one that would benefit most once he and Trevor were gone from the house?
"I know it is not worth much, Lord Gabriel," Master Liam said in a quiet tone, "but I am so very sorry. I never knew how deep this ran. I knew you were fated to defeat the Lords of Shadow and Satan, but I never knew what he planned for you afterward."
"I wonder why he's insisting that your tasks aren't complete." Mother mused as she ran her fingers through his hair, which prompted him to lean into the soothing touch. "The Lords of Shadow are gone, aren't they?"
"No," Gabriel whispered, "one still lives."
Father started in surprise. "Which one?"
"Zobek, the one that..." He swallowed thickly. "He is the one that made me murder Marie and Claudia."
"I thought he was dead?"
Gabriel shook his head. "I haven't seen him since that day, and I don't know how I know, but I know that he still lives somewhere. It's almost as though... it's like I can feel him."
"Oh Gabriel," Mother whispered as her arm came around his shoulders.
"So we have another we must be careful to watch for." Father said.
Gabriel nodded. "I tried, but he had been planning everything from the beginning, and I felt right into his trap." He closed his eyes again -
Goodbye, old friend!
- and shivered at the memory, the feel of Zobek's power crackling over his skin, stealing the breath from his lungs, making his muscles writhe like snakes, strangling his heart as it struggled to keep beating...
"Gabriel?"
He jerked in surprise, and he gasped as his eyes flew open to see the formal parlor around him. His parents and Master Liam were looking at him in concern.
"I'm all right." he said quietly. "Just a bad memory." Mother's fingers ran through his hair again, and he closed his eyes for a brief moment and sighed.
"It it pleases you, my lords, my lady," he heard Master Liam say, followed by the creaking of the man's joints as he stood up, "I shall take my leave."
"Thank you, Master Liam." Father said quietly. "We'll be waiting to hear more from you."
"As soon as I hear something, my lord."
Gabriel heard Master Liam walk out of the room, and his eyes flew open a second time as he jumped to his feet and strode quickly out of the room after him, ignoring his parents' confused calls. He stepped out into the corridor, and spotted Master Liam just down the hall, following his escort to the entrance hall.
"Master Liam, wait!"
The man paused and turned to look at him as Gabriel quickly walked up to him. He looked at the servant that was acting as escort - "Wait here a moment." - and dragged his old teacher into a nearby room and closed the door behind them. The smells of old leather, steel, and cloth touched his nose, and a quick glance showed that they were in a storage area of some kind. The single window was covered by a heavy drape, and Gabriel nearly sighed at being away from the sunlight that filled the rest of the house.
"Lord Gabriel?"
"You don't have to call me that, Master Liam." Gabriel said in a soft voice as he raised his head to look the man in the eye.
"Propriety must be observed, Lord Gabriel, even if we don't like it."
"To hell with that!" Gabriel snapped. "You gave me this name, and you can use it however you want, propriety be damned."
Master Liam's hands came down to gently rest on his shoulders. "Calm down, Gabriel. Like it or not, you have a title now, and it would look very bad if I did not use it when addressing you."
"Even though you have my permission not to?"
Master Liam gave him a sad smile, and the room's dim light reflected off of his dark gray eyes. "Even then. In private we can be more familiar with each other, but in the company of others, especially your parents, I must use your title."
Gabriel's breath left in him in a huff, and he lowered his head to stare at the floor. "Things are so complicated now. I miss when life was simpler."
"Do you regret what has happened?"
His head whipped up. "No!" he said hastily. "Not at all! It's just that..." He shrugged. "We're finding plots within plots, and I feel like a puppet on Volpe's strings."
"I swear to you, Gabriel, that William will never come near you again. I don't care what I have to do."
"That's what worries me. I don't want anyone else to die because of me, Master Liam. If he really wants me back in line with his schemes, he will go through you if he has to. And you were... well..." He shrugged again.
Master Liam understood, thankfully. "I was always more the scholarly type, unlike William and Cecil. I understand your concern, Gabriel, but I received the same training that they did." He smirked, and Gabriel blinked at seeing such a thing. "I also received a bit of training that they didn't. I assure you that any attempt against me will net them a few unpleasant surprises."
"What kind of.." Gabriel trailed off in confusion.
"There are other kinds of magic aside from Light and Shadow, magic that being the scholarly type makes easier to learn. I just never displayed it much due to the negative attitudes towards magic in general. Trust me, Gabriel, trust me to be able to protect myself. Trust me to protect you, like I did whenever you wandered into the library well past your bedtime after dreaming about a monster under your bed that wanted to eat you."
Gabriel blushed as he looked down at the floor again. "I had forgotten about that." he mumbled.
"Gabriel? Why aren't you asleep?"
The feel of his sleeping gown swirling around his bare ankles as he padded into the dimly lit library. "I had a scary dream, Master Liam."
Welcoming arms picking him up and the warmth of being held against his teacher's chest. "Come then, have some warm cider with me, and tell me about it."
Gabriel shook off the old memory. "Why did I forget that?"
"Time marches on for all of us, Gabriel."
"I suppose." He frowned in thought. "Master Liam, what about those that were there when Volpe tried to kidnap me that day?"
"What has been done with them?" Gabriel nodded. "Nothing at the moment. William had them convinced that you were not in your right mind and that your parents had taken advantage of that to claim you for the fame you would bring them. They honestly believed they were there to rescue you from those that were trying to take advantage of you. Seeing you in control of yourself convinced them otherwise."
"Seeing me cry in my mother's arms was very convincing, I'm sure." Gabriel muttered under his breath.
Master Liam smiled faintly. "It was. That you would hold onto her so tight when you were so upset showed them that maybe you were happy with the arrangement." The smile faded, and the man's expression grew serious. "I am keeping my eyes and ears about, Gabriel. I have no doubt that some are still loyal to William and Cecil, which is hindering my attempts to find out where they went."
"You don't know who you can trust to search for them."
"Exactly. I am working on it though, this I promise you."
"I just wish I knew what all he was planning, though, after reading that letter, I'm not sure I want to know any more."
"The more we know..." Master Liam began.
"...the better prepared we will be." Gabriel finished with a nod. "I understand that, but it doesn't make this any less pleasant."
"Focus on the positive here. Get to know your parents, spent time with your son, enjoy having a family around you." Master Liam's eyes dimmed slightly. "Some will never have that, and some... some have forgotten how that feels."
Gabriel looked at his teacher for a long moment, feeling the weight of the untold story behind that statement, but he nodded and said nothing. "I will do that."
"I should go, Gabriel. I have much to do and not enough time to do it."
Gabriel nodded again. "I understand." The door opened at his thought, allowing the light from the hallway to spill into the room. "When will I see you again?"
"Likely when I next have news for you and your parents." Master Liam stepped out into the hallway, where his escort was still waiting, and Gabriel followed him. "Take care of yourself, Lord Gabriel."
"And you as well, Master Liam. Safe journey home."
Master Liam smiled at him, and then he nodded at his escort and began to walk away. Gabriel watched him go until the bright sunlight spilling in from the large windows at the end of the corridor swallowed him up. Gabriel turned to go back to his parents and started in surprise to see his uncle standing only a few feet away. The older man glared at him for a moment, and Gabriel tensed when he saw the smirk that formed on the man's lips. Without taking his eyes off of him, Cordrin then reached out and opened the door on his right, which allowed sunlight to spill into the corridor, blocking Gabriel's passage back to where his mother and father were waiting for him. He then spun on his heel and walked away.
Gabriel felt his lip curl in disgust. "Bastard," he muttered as he turned his back to the light to try and find an alternate route to where he needed to go.
******
"Yes, Gabriel, now you finally understand. It was you who murdered your wife!"
The ax, falling down, swung by his hands...
Marie, lying still in front of him...
The meaty thunk! of the blade slicing through her neck...
Blood spraying from the gaping hole, splattering across his face and chest...
"No!" Gabriel wasn't sure if his scream was real or just another part of that reoccurring nightmare as he bolted upright in bed, chest heaving, cold sweat soaking into his linen nightshirt. (Vampires sweat? a tiny part of his mind pondered in surprise.) He raked his damp hair back from his face and swallowed the tears in his throat as he tried to bring his breathing back to normal.
There came a knock on the bedroom door, and he looked around and felt his heart skip at the dark, unfamiliar room before he remembered that he had moved out of his old nursery to a suite more befitting his station after the talk with Master Liam that morning.
There was another knock. "Lord Gabriel?" came the voice of one of his guards. "Are you all right?"
He swallowed again. "I'm fine." he replied as he tried to ignore the shakiness of his voice. "Go back to your post."
"Are you certain? Would you like one of us to fetch Lady Cronqvist for you?"
He took a deep breath. "That won't be necessary. Go back to your post." See, he was getting the hang of ordering servants about... He heard the guard's footsteps move away from the bedroom door to stand by the main door into his rooms, and he swallowed and wiped at his eyes before he took a deep breath to try and calm his breathing. He flopped back down to the mattress and closed his eyes...
… only to open them again with a gasp when he saw the bloodied ax that had killed Marie against the darkness of his eyelids. He shuddered and rolled over onto his left side, and he curled up under the quilt as he tried to will the images away.
But they wouldn't leave, and he thought he could feel Marie's blood dripping from his hands and trickling down his neck. He whined as he wiped his hands against the quilt and squeezed his eyes shut, but an image of her severed head appeared in front of him, and he flipped himself onto his stomach and buried the shriek that came out in the pillows.
"Leave me be." he moaned as he rolled onto his right side and stared at the opposite wall. "Leave me in peace for just one night."
Thunk!
He shook his head as shivers ran through him, and he was unable to stop the small cry that slipped out.
You murdered your wife!
"No!" He kicked the blankets away and leapt out of bed. He barely noticed the cold floor under his bare feet as he fled the bedroom, nor did he pay any attention to his half dressed state as he ran though his sitting room and out into the corridor. He did not hear the calls of his guards as they chased after him. He had to get away, far away, as fast as possible. He ran from the memories like he had run from the voices at Bernhard Castle, not paying any attention to where he was going. His guards could not hope to keep up with them, but he paid no mind to their voices as he lost them. He just needed to run away, away from the memories, away from the nightmares, away from the guilt that ate at his soul.
He didn't know how long he had been running, if it had been seconds, minutes, or hours, but his shivering worsened into shudders that wracked his frame, making him slow and stumble as tears blurred his vision. He stumbled to his knees in a dark room, lit only my soft, multicolored light, and he wrapped his arms around himself and rocked himself in a vain attempt at comfort and calm.
His ears detected a heartbeat moving towards him, accompanied by soft footsteps, but it wasn't until a hand came down on his shoulder that he really paid any attention.
"Lord Gabriel? Are you all right?"
He cried out in surprise, and yanked himself to the right. "Stay away!" he gasped as he scrambled away, but he felt his side collide with something, stopping him with the creak of protesting wood. A figure knelt down in front of him, blocking out the light, but he was still able to see the face.
"Please go away!"
"Lord Gabriel, no one here is going to harm you. Do you understand where you are?"
Gabriel closed his eyes and shook his head quickly from side to side.
Thunk!
"You are in the chapel, Lord Gabriel. None that seek to harm you can enter here."
Listen to him, Gabriel.
Gabriel's eyes flew open as though someone had pried them open, and his heart skipped a few beats when he thought he saw his uncle kneeling there in front of him -
"I am not a threat to you, Gabriel."
- but he was quick to notice that while the face was very similar, there were subtle differences. The body was younger, the shape of the face was more round, the skin was paler, and the eyes were not as dark. Gabriel felt his racing heart begin to slow, and he blinked as awareness began to filter back to him. His gaze left the man in front of him and roamed around the room that he found himself in.
Moonlight shone softly through stained glass windows, leaving patterns on the worn wood floor and glinting off of the iron chandeliers hanging high overhead from the vaulted ceiling. Neat rows of pews lined one side of the room, and a quick glance confirmed that he was pressed up against one on the other side of an isle. A holy table with a red altar lamp was up at the front of the room, on a dais in front of a large wooden cross with a painted image of Jesus on it.
"Are you all right now, Lord Gabriel?" the face in front of him asked, and he managed a small nod as he shivered again. The face, and the body it was attached to, moved, and Gabriel felt something soft, heavy, and warm being draped around his shoulders – a fur blanket, he realized when he touched it.
"Come, you're freezing. Let's get you someplace warm." Hands pulled gently at his shoulders, and Gabriel slowly stood up on legs that trembled beneath him and allowed himself to be led away. He paid scant attention to where they were going, and it wasn't until he was pushed down gently into a chair by a small table that he looked up.
He was in a small apartment that appeared to be constructed out of the same materials that the chapel had been made from. The scent of wood smoke from dying embers in a nearby fireplace filled his nose, and the small space seemed much warmer and inviting that the large opulent rooms elsewhere in the house. Somewhere nearby a lamp was lit, and its soft glow allowed him to better see his mysterious benefactor as that person bustled about the tiny kitchen. In the better light, the resemblance to Cordrin Cronqvist was even stronger, but this man's eyes, when they turned to look at him, held a warmth and kindness that Gabriel doubted that his uncle had ever displayed. A cup full of warm liquid was pushed into his hands, and his nose was quick to detect the combined scents of apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a splash of alcohol spiraling up from the cup. He raised it and took a sip: cider. He took another sip and sighed faintly when its warmth began to banish his chill.
"I.. apologize for disturbing your night." he whispered, followed by another sip of the cider. "You should have left me out there."
His companion sat down on the other side of the table, with his own cup of cider. "I cannot leave a soul in pain."
The bitterness of the laugh surprised even Gabriel. "My pain is of my own making." He raised his head to level his gaze upon the other. "Who are you?"
"My apologizes, Lord Gabriel, I should have introduced myself already. I am Father Caleb."
Oh joy, first he manages to somehow find the chapel, and then he is found by the priest. This was the last thing he needed...
"You are deeply troubled." the priest said evenly, and Gabriel turned his head away from that knowing look.
"There is nothing that can be done to help." he said quietly. "I'm sorry, but you wasted your time. I should go; no doubt the guards are frantically searching for me."
"Your feet brought you here for a reason, Lord Gabriel. Perhaps we should endeavor to discover what that reason is before you depart?"
"I am nothing more than a murderer trying to outrun the guilt that haunts my dreams, priest."
"Yet you are also His Chosen One."
Gabriel whipped his head around and met the priest's calm visage. "How-?"
"God's touch is visible to those who can see it, Lord Gabriel, and I see it upon you. Despite what you may or may not have done, you carry His favor.
The bitter laugh made a reappearance. "Yes, and you see how well that has worked for me."
"I see a man safely reunited with the family that he did not know he had."
"A vampire, priest, one mustn't forget that, as well as a murderer."
"You are as God intended."
You are a good man, Gabriel. You are as God intended.
"No! I didn't ask for any of this!"
The priest laid a hand on his arm. "Sometimes, He asks things of us that we do not like, Lord Gabriel, but those tasks are necessary. We cannot hope to understand His plans, so one must have faith and trust Him to see us safely through."
"Did His plans include the death of my wife at my own hands? Or the murder of an innocent girl who trusted me even as I plunged a dagger into her heart? Tell me Priest, why should I trust in Him, when all of his plans have caused harm to those around me?"
"If your wife had not died, Lord Gabriel, would you have gone on your quest? Would you have devoted your entire being to seeing it through? Would you have fought so hard to banish Satan if your wife's soul hadn't been at stake?"
Gabriel opened his mouth to snap that of course he would have, but he paused, and then he closed it without saying anything. "I don't know." he said truthfully. "I like to think that I would have, but with her waiting at home – her and Trevor – it would have been hard to keep going once things started to go wrong."
"Do you think you would have turned around and gone home?"
Gabriel nodded and took another sip of his cider. "Possibly." He gave the priest a sideways look. "Do you think He planned it that way?"
"We cannot hope to understand all of His plans, Lord Gabriel, but the death of your wife saved thousands of others. Perhaps that was His plan?"
Gabriel looked down at his cup, at his reflection that was distorted as his breath blew across the surface. "Why must I be the one that makes the sacrifice?"
"You will have to ask Him to answer that, Lord Gabriel."
"He would never speak to a creature such as me."
"You believe that, even though you carry His favor?" The hand resting on his arm gently squeezed for a brief second. "Open your heart back to Him, Gabriel; He is listening."
Gabriel closed his eyes and shook his head slightly. "I can't." he whispered.
"You are angry at Him?"
"I am. I never wanted to be the Chosen One, Father."
"No one ever does, Gabriel."
"Then why did He choose me?"
"Perhaps He has seen what you refuse to see. He has plans for you still, Gabriel; your tasks for Him are not yet complete."
"I keep hearing that, but no one seems too keen on telling me what those tasks are."
"You will know in time. For now though, your soul is injured and weary, and you have been given this time to rest and heal."
"Vampirism cannot be healed, Father."
"No, there is no cure for that aside from death."
"Then what am I to do? Must I live in constant fear of a mob arriving to end me? You know as well as I do what will happen if the common folk learn of my.. condition."
"Perhaps Gabriel, your condition as you say is necessary for the tasks that lie ahead. You became this way for a reason, did you not?"
Gabriel leveled a look at the priest, not sure if the man knew just how he had come to be a vampire or not, but the man's serene gaze belied nothing of his inner thoughts, and after a moment, it was Gabriel that looked away.
"I did what I had to do." he said quietly, and then he downed the remaining cider in one gulp.
"Yes, you did, and He does not fault you for that, Gabriel. He will not make you take more than you can bear. Speak to Him, Gabriel. Open your heart and listen."
A heavy knocking sounded against the door, and Gabriel jumped as the loud sound shattered the quiet that filled the room.
"Father Caleb?" came a guard's voice, and Gabriel sighed. "Are you awake?"
The priest gently squeezed Gabriel's arm one last time, and then he stood up and moved to answer the door. Gabriel looked down at his empty cup as he heard the door open, which admitted a cold draft into the room. He shivered as the guard asked if the priest had seen him. He shook his head, set the cup down on the table, shrugged the blanket off, and stood up.
"I am here." he said as he approached the door and bowed his head. "I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused tonight."
We are just relieved to find you safe, Lord Gabriel. You gave us quite a fright. If you are ready, we'll escort you back?"Gabriel nodded. "That will do." He turned to Father Caleb. "I'm sorry again for disturbing you, Father."
"It's not a disturbance if it is needed, Lord Gabriel." the priest said with a faint smile. "God brought you here when you needed it."
"I don't know if I can believe in Him right now."
The priest's smile widened. "Bless you, Lord Gabriel, but that doesn't matter," Here Caleb reached out and gently pulled on the delicate silver chain around Gabriel's neck, which pulled the silver crucifix out of his nightshirt to hang in plain sight, "because He believes in you."
Gabriel didn't respond to that. Instead he only shook his head again and walked out of the small, cozy apartment. Only then did he realize that he had been in a room just off the chapel itself: the priest's personal quarters no doubt. The two guards that had come to the door fell into step behind him as he left the chapel, but he paused.
"I have no idea where I am." he said in a tired voice. "So lead on."
"Right this way, Lord Gabriel." said one of the guards as he stepped in front of him, while the other stayed behind him. The three of them walked back through the dark halls of the manor in silence, and while Gabriel knew he should pay attention and try to make an effort to memorize the layout of the house, he was simply too tired to care. He just wanted to lie down and sleep the hours away, without any nightmares to remind him of what he had done.
"Did you find him?" came his father's voice, and Gabriel winced as guilt stabbed his heart at the worry in the man's voice.
"We did, my lord. He's right here."
"Oh Gabriel," came Mother's voice, and he looked up just as she ran up to him and cupped his face in her hands, "Are you all right?"
He took her hands in his own. "I'm fine." he mumbled as he looked back down at the floor. "I didn't mean to worry you. You can go back to bed."
"Nonsense," she scolded him as she tugged him through his open door, "I'm not going anywhere until I'm assured that you're all right."
Gabriel saw the guards taking up their positions on either side of the door as he stepped through into his sitting room. The room was still dark and cold, but only he seemed to notice the chill. Was he cursed to always feel the cold while others basked in the warmth? He shook his head again as he walked into the bedroom. Someone had lit and stoked the fireplace, so the room was considerably warmer that the sitting room, and the flickering light danced across the walls and furniture as his parents walked him to his bed. Mother let go of his hands, and he flopped down onto the mattress and buried his face in the pillows.
"Are you sure that you're all right, Gabriel?" Father asked gently as the quilt was pulled up to his cheek.
"M'fine." he mumbled as he closed his eyes. "Sorry for the trouble."
He felt Mother sit down beside him, and a second later, he heard Father sit down in a chair by the head of the bed. "There's nothing to be sorry for, son." Father said. Mother's hand ran gently through his hair.
"Go back to sleep, Gabriel." she said softly. "We're here with you."
Gabriel breathed out as his body became heavy with sleep, and the last thing he was aware of was the feel of his mother's hand, resting against his cheek.
He slept the rest of the night through peacefully, undisturbed by any nightmare.
Power: 3 -- Power: 5Back to the Main Archive
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Random note: do you play Castlevania: Harmony of Despair by chance?
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Sorry, I don't. It's one of the few CV games which hasn't appealed to me.
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Awwww, I was hoping for another pal to enjoy the multiplayer with. (As if me and Jikki's discussions during play aren't weird enough, but still... XD)
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