Castlevania: Refrain of Darkness - Chapter 2

[eiahmon]

Title: Castlevania: Refrain of Darkness
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine, don't own.
Summary: Aqua receives a mission to investigate a new world that's appeared on the council's radar due to a Heartless invasion, and finds that everything is different here. Now she must team up with Juste Belmont and track down the source of the Heartless in a world where souls have all the power and hearts don't belong.

 

2.

Juste urged his horse into a trot as he rode into town the following morning. The sun was just peeking up above the horizon as he rode in, leading his sister's horse behind him. She had wanted to come along, but being pregnant prevented that. She had cheerfully agreed to allow Aqua to borrow her horse for the journey, which Juste was glad of. Her mare was a battle horse, bred and trained from a foal to stand up to nearly anything without spooking and to fight viciously when attacked. Nearly everyone in the Belmont Clan had one. The mount would serve Aqua well during their six day round trip.

Slung over the back of each horse was a bedroll and two saddle bags. To the outside observer, that may not seem like much, but Juste had long ago perfected space enhancing spells in preparation for Dracula's eventual revival. He had them on the inside and outside pockets of his coat, which allowed him to carry far more than he would be able to normally. To that end, the saddlebags were stuffed with food, cooking utensils, and various other objects they would need along the way. Weight reducing spells were also applied so the horse would not have to bear any more weight than necessary.

The upcoming journey had him nervous; whatever was behind these Heartless, it had to be something or someone powerful. If it was Dracula, then that meant he had somehow acquired more monsters to send at the towns and villages in his quest for vengeance. If it wasn't him, then they were dealing with an unknown, which was even worse. He would have to get answers from Aqua and soon.

Aqua was waiting for him outside the tavern already. It was a lovely morning, after all. She crouched next to the building, off to the side and out of the way, petting a friendly stray cat as she watched the time go by until Juste arrived.

When he got closer, she noticed him-and more importantly, the creatures he was riding and leading. Her face paled. "I...don't really do horses..." she mumbled.

Juste gave her a strange look as he dismounted from the saddle. Everyone knew how to ride a horse in the region. It was a necessity, and it just further confirmed his feeling that she was from nowhere near the area.
"Do you know how to ride at all?" he asked, careful to keep his voice neutral.

"Not a horse," she replied simply. "Nor anything remotely horse-shaped."

Where was she from that she didn't need such an important skill? Well, too late to worry about that. He moved over to his sister's horse and beckoned her forward. "Well, it is not hard to learn. Let me show you, so we can be on our way."

She'd read about first time riders forced to go long distances. It made her extremely glad that she could just Cure the muscle soreness away by the end of it. "All right then, if we must."

Juste got right down to business. "Later on, once we've stopped for the night, I will be able to teach you had to put the saddle and bridle on, which is also very important, but for now we'll focus on just getting up there and moving."

With that, he showed her how to mount up by putting her foot in the stirrup ("Left side of the horse means you use your left foot.") and pull herself up by the horse's mane. ("Don't worry, it won't hurt her."). Once she was seated in the saddle, he showed her how to direct her using the reins and her knees. Thankfully, she was a quick study, and soon, she was riding around the square. Once he was assured that she wasn't going to topple from the saddle, he mounted his own horse and rode along side her for a few more rounds.

"Got it?" he asked her. "Think you're ready to go?"

"Yes, let's just move on. I've wasted enough of our time already," she admitted easily. She hadn't planned on this whole thing but, well, at least she could say she could ride a horse the next time something like this came up. It was a little less intuitive than her glider, since the horse is a living creature with a mind of its own, but at least it – she - was used to following orders, so Aqua managed to muddle along well enough.

"Let us be on our way then." Juste replied as he directed his horse down the main road, which ran north-south through town. For most of the trip they would be on a major road, but about halfway there they would have to take a detour onto a little used trail to take them to Castlevania.

At least it was a beautiful day to start out on, he thought as they rode north towards the Carpathian Mountains, which could just barely be seen on the distant horizon. The sky was clear, the temperature was moderate, and a light breeze ruffled his hair, which he had tied back. Soon, they would be back under the forest canopy and would lose that breeze, though the shade would be some relief. The day would likely be a warm one.

Aqua was behind him, so he kept an ear on her in case she fell from the saddle, though he doubted that would happen. She reminded him a little of himself in that once something was learned, it was learned and it would stay with her for the rest of her life. Hopefully, if they ran into any trouble on the road and had to run for it, she would be able to stay on at full gallop.

Pulling back on the reins a little to slow his horse down, he allowed her to catch up with him, and once they were riding abreast of each other, he spoke.

"So, what all can you tell me about these creatures that have been appearing?"

"What have you gathered about them so far? I'll go off of that."

"Not much, I'm afraid. They are vicious, and they come in many forms, but they don't seem very aggressive. When they attacked you was the most aggression I'd seen from them thus far. They come out at night as well as the day, and don't seem to fear the sunlight at all, though fewer of them are seen during the daylight hours. Those like myself that are attuned to such things can feel the dark power rolling off of them, though it is unlike anything I have ever felt before. They also seem to generate cold temperature around them, though not as cold as other creatures I've dealt with in the past.

"Anyway, the thing that puzzles me the most about them is that my family's whip does not hurt them as much as I would expect. It was made to kill such creatures, and normally it kills them instantly, aside from a few. To these things, these Heartless that you've been talking about, it only kills the weakest instantly and merely wounds the rest."

Feeling that she has a good enough grasp on horse riding to make a short demonstration, she lifted a hand from the reins and summoned her blade. "Heartless can be banished by other weapons, but only a keyblade like mine can destroy them permanently. They are the most effective weapons against them. I'm not entirely sure why, but keyblades have a special power to them that makes them much stronger than most other things. Having a heart filled with light allows them to be wielded against the creatures." She desummoned her blade to regain hold of the reins.

"Heartless are, simply put, created from the darkness in people's hearts. Emotions like fear, anger, and hatred allow them to form, and if the emotion is sufficiently strong enough, a Heartless can be formed, stealing that person's heart. The stronger the darkness, the stronger the Heartless. It's why they're called Heartless-because they lack their own hearts." She paused in her narrative, noting the man's strange look. "What is it?"

"Hearts?" he said in confusion. What was she talking about? "The heart simply houses the soul, other than that it is simply a muscle for pumping blood. How can it have darkness?"

"What? Now I'm confused. I don't mean the actual organ, it's more of a crystalline thing. Um, do you remember seeing them when I destroyed the Heartless before? Whenever a keyblade destroys a Heartless, it releases the stolen heart."

Aqua's words only increased Juste's feeling of confusion. Something was not right here. "I certainly did see that, and I have never seen such a thing before. We refer to the heart frequently in sayings and such, but that is only because when you are hurt emotionally, your feel physical pain around your heart, due to the soul being held within. I have never before heard what you are telling me."

"Er, well, we don't usually talk about the soul where I'm from. When you feel heartache, it's because your emotions are tied to your heart. Are you saying that you don't have the sort of heart I'm talking about?" If Juste was confused, so was Aqua. How can someone not have a heart? How can a soul be where all the emotions of someone or their personalities are held? It simply didn't make any sort of sense.

"My dear lady, I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me here, but of course emotions are tied to the heart. The soul, the source of emotion, resides there. The soul is hurt, and it transmits that distress to the area around the heart as real pain. People have died of such things before, which is why elderly couples often pass away within a year of each other, sometimes in mere weeks, or even days. The injury to the soul weakens the power it can use to keep the body alive, and the pain it causes to the heart injures it as well, greatly increasing the risk of heart failure."

"No, that's the heart. The soul has nothing to do with it. In fact, it's a largely debated concept over whether the soul or spirit exists at all. Heart, mind, and body, those are the components of a person," she argued.

Juste brought his horse to a stop suddenly, which prompted Aqua to do the same. Was this woman out of her mind? It was madness she was speaking, and being overheard by the wrong people could get her executed as a heretic!

He leveled a serious gaze on her. "The soul has everything to do with it." he said firmly, and he cut her off when she went to say something. "The soul is the source of your life, your emotion, it contains your memories, and when you die it moves on to Purgatory to be judged. It is the source of magical power for many, and I know this because I have seen Dracula and his ilk rip the souls out of living beings and use them as a power source! Now watch what you say, Miss Aqua, unless you would like to be executed by stoning or worse, burning, by those in power." He cut her off again. "And before you say anything, you have a soul, Miss Aqua. I can see it as I'm looking at you. Its light is dim, but it is present."

"Okay, clearly we've got completely different concepts here. I knew this would come up eventually but I was hoping to avoid it as long as possible. However, we're going to get nowhere fast if we don't come to some sort of consensus, so hopefully this will allow us to find some sort of compromise."

Aqua was rather unsettled by his determination and damn near condemnation on this subject, and decided they would get no further unless she admitted where she was from. She took a calming deep breath before continuing. "I'm from a different world. I'm not just from far away. I'm not even from this -planet-. And before you go off on me about how that's just not possible, you're just going to have to believe it. If there's something I can do to convince you it's true that I haven't already done, by all means let me know." Her eyes dared him to challenge her on this.

He just looked at her. "That's blasphemy you speak." he said, just barely managing to keep himself from snapping.

"Oh, we are getting nowhere," she grumbled, rolling her eyes. "You know what, give me a second." She jumped off the horse, rolling neatly after she stumbled upon contact with the ground. Being on a horse for a few hours does give one a strange walk at first.

She stalked toward the tree line, summoning her keyblade along the way. She issued a blast of light toward the sky, alerting any Heartless in the area that she was near and quite ready for them. A few shadows began snaking along the ground between the trees, forming near to her. She quickly dispatched them, waiting to see how many were drawn out. It was broad daylight, and the shadows were pale and scattered, so not many were in the area. She paused, allowing the last few to cluster around her. She blasted one with an easy Fire spell and snatched at its heart as it rose from the smoke left behind. Unfortunately, she missed and it floated past her reach and disappeared before she could catch it. She cast Gravira on the next one, wondering if the increased gravity would force the heart to remain longer to give her more time to grab it. However, the spell had to wear off before the creature would be destroyed, a strange little side effect of the magic, so she had to wait.

In the meantime, the other Heartless, this one a Soldier, came at her in a Cyclone, which she blocked, and followed up by freezing it with a stronger-than-necessary Blizzaga. What could she say, she was a bit ticked off at the moment. The Heartless shattered, the ice fragments releasing its heart. This one was slower than the other, perhaps because its casing had been frozen, and she did not waste the opportunity. She captured it and held onto the heart gently but firmly, not wanting to damage it. The Gravira spell finally broke and the Heartless expired, the heart floating away rapidly. No matter, she had one now. She returned to Juste, and presented the heart to him.

"Now do you see? Do be gentle, it belongs to someone somewhere."

He gave her a strange look before he looked at what she was holding in her hands. It was completely unlike a real physical heart, more like the symbol he sometimes saw in books and other writings to represent it. It seemed to glow with its own light, though that light was dimmed in the bright sunlight, and it sparkled like a jewel. Without thinking about it, he reached out to touch it but hesitated.

"It's fine. They are captivating, aren't they?" she said with a smile. "You can take it. Just be gentle. It won't float away unless it has nothing holding it back. A fairly light hold would suffice." She reached up a little further to hand the heart to him. Once she passed it over, she remounted her mare and watched Juste with the heart.

Juste stared silently at the... thing is his hands. Being magical always made one more in tune with emotions, his own and those around him, so he could faintly sense... feeling coming from the heart. A sadness, wistfulness, and a longing for the comfort of home and family, and he abruptly looked away and let go of it, unable to bear having it in his hands any longer.

"I... see." he said in a low voice.

"You seem to be very familiar with souls, so tell me: are they different things? Do you not have hearts like these?" Aqua asked.

"I have never seen those before in my life." Juste said quietly as he stared ahead without seeing anything. "The soul... shines like a brilliant light around the person it belongs to. Children and those pure of spirit have the brightest light, while those that have corrupted and given into evil are darker. Dracula's soul is nearly pitch black. A soul that is free of the body appears as a bright point of light very briefly before it vanishes on its way to be judged." He looked at her. "Your soul's light is a beautiful silver, but that light is dim, as though it was weaker than it should be. My daughter's soul can outshine the sun, while my grandfather's was, before he passed on, similar to yours, only much brighter."

"When the soul is lost, the body usually dies immediately, sometimes very painfully. Other times, it may live on for a short while, but there is no emotion, no light, no life. There is only a mere existence that continues on until the body runs out of the energy it needs to sustain itself and dies. A person with a wounded soul may act very strange. Their emotions will be dulled, and they will be tired quite often. The only thing to do is to avoid doing anything that may strain the soul while it heals itself."

"I see," Aqua commented softly, pondering the information. "What you said about light and darkness in a person's soul? That's how I see hearts in another. I can see the darkness in a person, and if that darkness has too strong a hold, I know that they are a threat and usually, I take them out. Very few hearts are pure light, however, so those that are pure are special and hold an unknown power if they are gathered together. Most people carry a mixture of darkness and light within them. It's only if it becomes too dark that it becomes a problem.

"In my world, and every other world I've been to until now, hearts are the core element of our beings. Our memories are not in them, but our emotions are, and those are really a major part of who we are. Without them, we can exist on an intellectually high level, but to be incapable of feeling anything...it makes us incomplete, and we long for our hearts so we can feel again.

"When our hearts are removed, through a surge of dark emotions that takes over our hearts or by a keyblade, the hearts attract the darkness and often become a Heartless' core. But the shell, the body left behind, if the person had a strong will in life, will continue to live on without a heart. They remember everything about their previous life, and what it was like to have emotions, but they can't feel them anymore. They simply feel a pervading emptiness. These people without hearts are called Nobodies. They are entirely capable, and some of them are unbelievably powerful, but without hearts they feel a deep desire to become whole again, and that can lead them to do terrible things when led astray." Aqua fell silent, thinking about Xehanort and all the harm he had caused them for so many years. Due to this line of thought, she added, "There are a select few who are able to control the darkness within them, and use its power without falling prey to it and losing their hearts. And these are the most dangerous, because that line is perilously thin. Walk too close and the darkness will overtake you without mercy. But those who can control it are capable of much pain and evil."

"I suppose that will not change no matter where you go then." Juste said with a faint smile, choosing to ignore the whole thing about her being from another world for the moment. It was too much to think about right now. "We have those here too, the ones that give into evil and darkness for whatever reason. Some do it for the purest of intentions; they want to protect someone or prevent an evil person from harming others, but it is indeed a slippery slope, and it is easy to slide past the point of no return. I pity those that fall in such a way and hope they can be destroyed before their soul is beyond redemption.

"The ones that I fear are the ones like Dracula, who gave into the darkness in the name of vengeance, the ones that have corrupted their soul possibly beyond all chance of saving it. So powerful is Dracula's evil that he will not stay dead. Six times now he has resurrected, and I was only barely able to prevent a seventh, and it nearly cost me my best friend and the woman that would become my wife.

"I am aware of darkness and the terrible toll it collects on those that fall to it and those around them, Miss Aqua. I am aware all too well. For nearly seven centuries, my family has held back the dark, and we will continue to do so for as long as necessary."

Aqua suppressed a shiver. What if Xehanort had been like Dracula? It was too frightening a thought to even consider. His body jumping ability was enough like resurrection as to be a close resemblance, and she didn't want to wonder what would happen if Xehanort had bridged that gap before he was finally eliminated. "I've experienced an enemy of a similar nature. We only recently managed to defeat him at last, at great cost to our friends and family. I can't imagine what it must be like for your greatest threat to continuously revive himself."

She paused before changing the topic. "Anyway, I was sent by the council back home to investigate the reports of an unusual surge of Heartless from this world that travelers have passed on to us. We have never been to this place before, likely due to the complete lack of Heartless here, which I now realize is probably because you don't have hearts like we do, so they have nothing to gain from you. I was chosen because I am a Keyblade Master, one of only a handful of others, and I am the most senior and experienced of them all." King Mickey and Yen Sid were both on the council, and deemed too old to really be of much help in undiscovered worlds. The king had a world of his own to rule as well. "It's hard going in blind. No one knew anything about this place, and I had no idea what I was even meant to look for aside from a source for the Heartless, which is as vague a concept as any." She sighed. "I am grateful for all your help thus far, really. I understand you're doing this for your people, but your assistance is of great value to me as well. It's my duty to protect the people of every world, and no one is less important than another. I do enjoy discovery and exploration as well, of course," she added, smiling.

Juste was grateful for the subject change, and he couldn't help but smiling a little himself. "Well, we Belmonts are always magnets for trouble. Anything of a dark nature that stirs in this area goes directly for us, because we are the biggest threat, which is why my house is warded to Heaven and back. Anything of an unpleasant nature that tries to get through will get a very nasty surprise. Now, shall we be on our way?"

"Of course," she agreed, and they spurred their horses onward. As they continued traveling, Aqua commented, "You know, your form of magic is very interesting. I'm one of the best spellcasters I know, but I've never seen anything like it. Do you suppose it's something others with magical potential can learn?"

Juste frowned in thought. "I am not sure, but I am going to go with probably not. My magic is inherited from my ancestor Trevor Belmont, and his wife, Sypha Belnades. Then again, it does tend to favor girls over the boys, so maybe that is why it's not very common, since the girls are heavily outnumbered within the Belmont Clan for some reason. I am the first boy to be born with such high magic levels.

"Trevor had some magic, but the most popular belief for that is that he was the unacknowledged grandchild of a powerful vampire that had a great deal of magic itself. No one knows for sure if that's true though. Most of the family magic, including mine, comes from Sypha." He looked at Aqua. "Would you like to try anyway though?"

"That would be fantastic. Regrettably, we should probably wait until we take care of whatever is behind the Heartless army," she said, looking truly sad about the delay. Aqua was many things, a voracious scholar of magic among them. "Of course, should we come across Heartless to defeat on the way, a crash course in applied practice would hardly be amiss," she grinned.

Juste laughed. "I'll see what I can do for you, Miss Aqua. Of course, your own form of magic is very unique. Is that part of being what did you call it? A Keyblade Master?" The pair rode into the deep forest that surrounded Warakiya, and the thick canopy cut off the sunlight, submerging them into a deep gloom that at night would be impossible to see in.

"Some of it is, but basic magic is something that non-wielders can also have a talent for. I know of several skilled mages back home that can't use a keyblade. As for me, the keyblade mostly strengthens my inborn abilities and gives me new applications for them." She viewed the change in scenery with slight distaste. "You'll want to be on your guard. With such shadows around us, there's bound to be Heartless within," she warned, keeping sharp eyes on their surroundings.

"Yes," Juste replied quietly, "Keep your senses open. Dracula's minions also like to linger in dark areas. It makes it easier to pounce on their prey without being seen. The horses will also be able to tell when something hostile is near, so pay attention to them." Thankfully, at least, the road was still wide enough for a wagon to pass through, so they had more than enough room to ride side by side: Juste on the left and Aqua on the right. By some unspoken agreement, Juste watched the left side of the road and the path ahead of them, and he could see Aqua keeping close eye on the right side and the direction they had come from.

"I've never fought vampires before, but I should hope that my weapon will be equally effective against them as my keyblade is meant to protect the light and defeat the darkness." Her eyes continuously scanned the area, and it was of little surprise to her when she eventually caught sight of shadows prowling in the woods beside them. "You know, I probably should've clarified this before, but Heartless are drawn to both hearts and the keyblades. I'm not entirely sure why, but it's a known fact. So as I am apparently the only one with a heart in this world, as well as a keyblade, I'm practically a homing beacon for them. So I apologize in advance." She summoned her blade before using it to direct a Firaga spell more accurately at the shadows beside them. The fireball splashed upon the ground, the flames catching several Heartless in the vicinity. Those who were not instantly killed still suffered burns.

"Try not to set the forest on fire, if you please Miss Aqua." Juste said in a dry tone as he followed up her attack with another Hydro Storm. It had the dual effect of killing the remaining Heartless and putting out the fires.

She had just enough time to shoot him a scathing look before he cast his spell, which immediately gained her attention. "I wasn't going to let it go anywhere. Water and ice magic are actually my strongest points."

He continued, ignoring her irritation. "And you shan't have to worry about vampires much. Most vampires are very territorial and will kill any younger ones that come too close, and many are too terrified to come near Dracula anyway. Dracula has a child, but that child has nothing to do with him, so he is not a threat. No, you must watch out for the demons and animated corpses that are under his control."

"Oh, lovely, demons and animated corpses are definitely on my list of creatures I most want to deal with today," she responded sarcastically. "Anything else I should be aware of so I can put it on my attack card?" She mentally equated her list of things lining up to kill her to that of a ballroom dance card, and it was getting remarkably full.

Juste gave her a sideways look. "This may sound personal," he said hesitantly, "but... do you have someone that is near and dear to you that is male?"

She frowned in confusion. "Most of the people in my field are male, so most of my friends are male. Why is this important?"

Juste found himself waffling back and forth for a moment, before he just decided to forge on ahead. There was no delicate way to word such a subject as far as he knew anyway. "There is a particular kind of creature that works for Dracula, and we're not sure if it's a demon, a vampire, or some hybrid of both."

"Okay...I assume you're going somewhere with this?" Juste was doing little to clear up her bewilderment.

He sighed. "Simply put this demon, vampire, whatever it is, does not feed off blood like the rest of its ilk do. Instead it feeds off of..." He swallowed. ".. sexual energy."

She blinked repeatedly, swallowing that information. "Oh! No, I have no one like that, and I'm not interested in any of them that way. Please tell me that makes a difference," she said quickly.

Juste allowed a small sigh of relief. "It will make it harder for them to ensnare you, but they can still make it work. I speak of the succubus and the incubus, the former is female, while the latter is male. They specialize in illusion magic, and they will cloak themselves in magic to appear as someone you care about. Since you are female you will likely be targeted by an incubus, but if a succubus is desperate enough, she will go after you as well.

"It does not matter if you know full well that your friends and family are safe at home. When you see that illusion, you will believe that it is them standing there. They put off a powerful allure that is difficult to resist. They rarely kill their victims, but once they have you, they will keep you ensnared until you either manage to break free on your own, or someone kills them."

"Mm...then they'll probably take on Terra's appearance. He's my best friend. Our history is complicated. It will be hard for me to break free if they ensnare me." Her eyes darkened slightly. Complicated...that was one word for it.

Oh, there was definitely a story there, Juste thought as he caught the look in her eyes. He had to admit that he was mildly curious, but since it was none of his business, he changed the subject. "Dracula might have another vampire working with him, but that is doubtful. If we do encounter one, aim for the head and heart, and use fire magic." He gave her a sardonic smile. "Vampires are very flammable."

"Fantastic, an easy weakness." Aqua smiled as well, grateful for the subject change and also pleased that she in particular would have a great advantage against vampires should they happen to come across one. "So what exactly do you expect to find when we arrive?" she inquired, curious as to what could be there.

"Honestly, I have no idea. I don't expect to find Dracula there in the flesh, at any rate, and I expect that the castle is still in ruins, since we would know if it were standing once again. But since it is the first place to check when strange things start happening..." He trailed off and shrugged.

"Indeed, the most suspicious place is where you should start a search. And about how much longer do we have to travel? I'm certainly feeling my inexperience with riding," she admitted. They had been on the road for hours by now. She couldn't remember how long he'd expected the journey to take, and she knew her riding lesson this morning had slowed them down a bit.

He gave her a sympathetic look. "Three days, two nights. It makes me grateful that I've been able to ride since I was three."

"Well, this'll be fun," she said, rolling her eyes. She was grateful that she had an all-purpose healing spell to take the majority of the ache off. "Generally, if I can't walk or run somewhere, I'll take my glider. It's much faster and a great deal easier."

"Glider? What is that?"

"Um, well...it's sort of like a sled that floats in the air instead of on the ground, and it's made out of metal. It moves by magic, more or less, and controlling it is a lot more simple than a horse since a horse has its own mind. I can show you when we get to a more open area than this forested path if you'd like," she offered. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't offer, but she'd already revealed her otherworldly status, so it wasn't like this would really make a difference. "It's advanced technology. I can't really explain it myself."

"I will hold you to that. At any rate, we don't have long to go for the day. I want to have camp for the night set up by the time the sun is set. Setting up in the dark of this place will be difficult, so we have to be ready before then."

"Yeah, it's dark enough now that I can hardly imagine what it'll be like come nightfall," she agreed, before she decided to change the subject. "So, I remember you said something about a couple people to Maxim last night. Your family?" Aqua knew family was nearly always a good subject for people. Most were very happy to talk about their wives or kids.

Juste smiled fondly, and part of him thought that he must look like a love sick idiot, but he didn't care. "Yes," he said, "I have a wife and a daughter, and my wife is pregnant with our second now."

"Congratulations!" she exclaimed. Birth was always something of a wonder to her. There was something about babies and young children that Aqua always found awe-inspiring. "What are their names?" She couldn't quite recall what he'd said the night before.

"Lydie is my wife. Alexandra is my daughter. If our second is a girl, we're going to name her Lydia; if it's a boy, we plan to name him Richter."

"They sound lovely. Have you been married long?" Probably not, she thought, but not all couples have children right away.

"Four years. We married a year right after..." Juste stopped himself; now wasn't the time to be bringing that up. He looked to the west and saw the sun beginning to descend rapidly towards the horizon. "I believe it's time to find a suitable place to camp for the night."

Aqua realized there was probably a long story behind that when Juste cut himself off, so she readily let it go. She nodded. "Certainly. There looks like there might be a clearing off to the side up ahead. Want to check it out?"

"Certainly." He urged his horse into a trot, and reached the spot quickly. He looked it over and pronounced it suitable by the time Aqua caught up. "This will work well, I think." He slipped down out of the saddle and dropped lightly to the ground. "Do you need assistance getting down, Miss Aqua?"

She gave her body a quick once over internally. "I think I'll be okay if I move slowly. I can cast a heal to take care of most of the soreness too once I get down." She carefully swung a leg over to the other side and steadied herself with the saddle and mare's mane as she lowered herself down. Gods was she ever sore. A long day of nearly nonstop riding was extremely hard on a newbie. Her legs shook and she felt like she couldn't stand properly. Keeping her free hand on the horse, she cast a quick Cura on herself without summoning her blade. No need to attract more Heartless when she could use magic without it anyway. She felt the magic soothe her muscles and cool the skin where it had been rubbed raw beneath her leggings, and she sighed with quiet relief. "Thank God for magic, my life would be so much harder without it. I'll be fine now. I believe you planned to show me how to care for the horse's tack?" Now that she was healed, she turned her attention to the tasks at hand. "Or should we set up camp first?"

"Camp first." he said quickly, slightly amazed at her healing magic. He had a healing spell himself, but it took a great deal to cast, and it was limited in what it could do, which forced him, like many Belmonts before him, to rely on healing potions. Hence why he had spent so much time and effort as a child and young teenager trying to perfect space expansion spells.

He quickly unhooked one side of the reins from the bridle and used the resulting leather cord to tie his horse to a tree with a locking halter knot, and he was pleased to see Aqua doing the same. She certainly paid attention and caught on quickly. "I assume you've had to set up camps before? Am I correct?"

"Yes, that much I've done before," she confirmed with a certain amount of sarcasm. "The transportation was new, not the whole questing and journeying thing." She reached into a pocket hidden by her skirt and pulled out a basic Tent, which quickly expanded as soon as she brought it to the outside air. She set it up easily a safe distance from the centerpoint of the clearing where she knew a fire would be.

"Impressive, I think your space expansion spells are better than mine." Juste commented as he rummaged around in his pockets for a particular knife and a healing potion. "So are you ready for your first "crash course" as you put it in an applied practical of my type of magic? To see if it's possible for you to use it? Or maybe to see if your type of magic can do the same?"

Her eyes lit up. "Of course!" she exclaimed, now paying rapt attention.

He gestured her over to join him in the center of the clearing. "Come stand over here with me." Once she had done so, he directed her to look around the entire clearing. We are about to create two wards, one as a warming in case anything meaning to harm us comes too close, and one that will actually attack anything that tries. Do you have wards where you are from?"

"Not exactly. Aero can be sometimes be used to create a swirling wind around you that shields you from physical attacks for a short time, and I have a special block that creates a sort of bubble shield around me, but both of those are temporary, and I can tell what you're suggesting is not."

"What we'll be doing here is temporary as well, since it will only have a bit of blood and power to anchor it. Permanent wards, like the ones that surround the homes of the Belmonts, have anchors that charge by slowly drawing in the ambient magic over time. As long as they don't draw faster than the ambient magic is replaced then they will stand strong unless their anchors are destroyed or something overpowers them. They will also absorb any magic thrown at them and use it to strengthen themselves. It would take a great deal of power thrown at them at once to damage them.

"But for now, we just need something to last us the night; the next rain will wash them away. Wards are all about intent and proper placement. Most do not need any actual spell to be cast. You use your blood and your power to create it, so you give it instructions when emplacing it and order it do as you tell, and it will obey, because it comes from you. Do you understand so far?"

"Theoretically, yes, I follow. I'm not sure about application though. We don't really have any sort of 'blood magic' in my world. Everything is basically element-based, with the exception of Cure and Stop spells. So I'm more or less understanding this at an entirely academic level." Aqua recognized that this sort of magic was completely different from the kind she had always used, and it added more doubt to the idea of her being able to learn and use it herself. She wasn't going to give up hope, though. She wasn't considered one of the best magicians of her time for nothing.

"Most blood magic is frowned upon, because it has very few good uses; this is one of the few. Just don't tell anyone that you used it. For that matter, don't tell anyone that you use magic at all. I believe we should use all the gifts that God gave us, but many consider magic to be the work of Satan, so keep your knowledge and use of it to yourself, for your own safety."

She frowned at that. Magic was a part of her, and she couldn't understand why it would be seen as something wrong. The more she learned about this world, the stranger it seemed. She agreed however; it was better to keep quiet about such things than to draw attention and cause friction with the locals. Besides, as an interworld traveler, she was supposed to stay out of the daily lives of the people anyway. "Very well, I can follow the logic of that."

He smiled at her, relieved that she had agreed to keep quiet. "Anyway," he said briskly, "back to business. Wards can take any shape, but the ones that have fewer corners are best. The more corners you have, or in the case of a circle, the less you have, the more anchors you need. Squares are best as they give you the most area for the fewest corners, though the amount of space within the wards is restricted by the anchors. The larger the space, the more anchors you need. What I need you to do is look about the clearing and imagine the box. Try to line up the corners with objects that are across from each other and have a direct line of sight to each other. You can't use a spot halfway up a tree trunk and then use a rock at ground level. They have to be level with each other and have an unobstructed view."

"In other words, if you're not on flat ground you're basically out of luck?"

"Not entirely, as long as the ground isn't too hilly, and that's only a problem if you're trying to ward a large area. For a small area like this, unlevel ground is not as much of a problem. So look at the clearing, and find the square's corners for me."

Aqua swept her gaze over the clearing again, sketching out a square as best she could in her mind. Geometry hadn't been her best subject back when Eraqus had trained her but neither was it her worst. She pointed to each object as she identified it. "That tree there, that rock, that rock, and that scraggly looking bush thing over there." She looked up at him quizzically when she was done, hoping she'd chosen well.

Juste nodded at her choices. "The rocks will work, as will the base of the tree. However the bush will not. Can you tell me why?"

"Because comparatively, it's not as well-grounded as the other points?" she guessed. In all honesty, she had no idea, but that was the best she could come up with. The rocks were heavy and quite set into the ground, and the tree was large and clearly had deep-running roots. The bush was easily torn out in comparison.

He shook his head slightly, a little disappointed that she had forgotten the second requirement. "The leaves could block the line of sight and collapse the ward, if a breeze were to spring up, so you have to find a different object."

"Hm. I'd thought that the base of it was far enough below the leaves that it wouldn't make a difference." She glanced at the nearby area. "Would that tree to the left work then? The angle isn't quite right but that's the closest object in the vicinity."

Juste looked at what she was indicating. "Yes, I believe that will work fine. Now that's the square for the inner attack ward, now we need to create a larger square for the outer warning ward, and it has to be to be a fair size to give us fair warning before the inner ward is triggered. Once again, I need you to find the square."

"And line of sight still applies?" We're in a forest, that could be rather more difficult, she thought.

He nodded. "Mmmhmm." He had already picked out markers for the second square, but he hoped that she would find them on her own. Good observation was key in wardings.

She turned in slow circles around the clearing a few times, determined not to miss any of the requirements this time. She disqualified several trees before she found markers she thought might do. "That oak to the north there," she began, pointing to further identify what in particular she was looking at. "The rock in the west, the maple in the south, and this other oak in the east."

Juste gave her a proud smile, the same smile that he had once seen on the face of his magic teacher, his cousin, Annie Belnades, when he was a boy. It was a smile he hoped to bestow upon Alexandra in the future. "Very good, those are the ones that I'd spotted as well." He walked up to the maple tree that she had indicated and once she had joined him, he showed her the silver athame that he had removed from his pocket. It was a doubled edged athame with a silver blade, and a black hilt covered in intricate silver designs in the shapes of a large dragon. Even the individual scales were visible, and it curled around the handle, with the end of the tail curled upon itself to form the pommel. It had been a gift from a grateful Wallachia after Trevor Belmont had put Vlad III in his grave permanently. "I want you to gather your power, as though you were preparing to cast a powerful spell. Once you have done that then, with this knife, I will lightly nick the tip of one of your fingers, and then you will use the blood to mark the tree at the correct height. While you do that, think of what you want the ward to do, and command your power do warn you if anyone crosses it. Do so now."

She ran his instructions over in her mind once more, making sure that she wouldn't be distracted by forgetting what she was supposed to do in the middle of things. "Down at the base here, near the root?" she clarified, and he nodded. She let her eyes close halfway, as she consciously summoned the power she normally used without thought. She proffered her hand to Juste, and didn't flinch when he pricked her skin. She was used to far worse things, after all. She pressed the cut to the trunk as she concentrated on the idea of a shield to protect and warn her of anything that crossed its borders.

Juste smiled as he watched his new student at work. He could feel the power sizzling in the air around her, like a barely contained thunderstorm, and when she touched the tree with her bleeding finger, he could feel the magic flowing from her through the small cut he had made. There was a brief flare of light, and he looked around for a moment and opened his senses wide to determine if anything unsavory had noticed it, but there was nothing in the vicinity but them. After a second, the light faded, the flow of power ceased, and she stood up, trembling just a little.

"Are you all right?" he asked in concern. With her high magic levels, he had expected for her to not have any trouble, but she was clearly unused to doing such magic.

"Magic...comes easily to me. It's completely intuitive at this point. I never have to consciously call it forth to cast my spells. It just flows. So this...this is very different for me." She takes a mental diagnostic. Her magic levels had taken a definite hit, and her body felt the loss of power. "I don't think I'm supposed to expend quite so much magic to do this. I used a lot more power than was likely necessary. That will take getting used to. I never have to apply my magic consciously, so I probably poured far more out than I should have, that's all."

"Do you want to try a second one? To see the effects, or would you rather go do something less intensive?"

"I'd like to see what this accomplishes, so yes, let me continue. I'll use less power this time, so it should be fine." She moved on to the next mark, assuming he'd follow after. She did the same thing as the first time, though she called forth half as much magic this round. She hoped it would still be as effective.

Juste couldn't help but smile again when she stood up to face him. Already he could feel the new ward shimmering into place between the two marks that she had created, though it was invisible to the eye. He quickly stepped to the right, which caused him to pass through it.

"Do you feel it?"

She shivered from the magical response to his passage. "Oh that is weird. It would certainly wake me up were I asleep. So it serves its purpose. Now, is the blade used important? Or is it solely reliant on blood, placement, and intent?" She knew the knife he held was unique but she didn't know if that was important or not.

"Somewhat. Silver carries magic well, and it's harmful to many creatures of the night. It also acts as a purifier, which is why it's favored for ritual instruments such as this athame. If you were under the effect of a corrupting influences that I could not detect, you would be very reluctant to touch the blade, and if you did touch it, it would burn like fire. Only the most powerful of the creatures of the night, like Dracula and Death, can resist silver. In cases like them, something more powerful is needed." He patted the Vampire Killer affectionately and felt a faint rush of affection in return from it. "It's also rare and expensive, which is one of the reasons why this blade was such a precious gift."

He looked over Aqua with a critical eye. "Why don't you go get the fire going? I doubt you're up to warding the entire clearing, and that must be done quickly. I'll finishing the warding, and then I'll make us some dinner while you take a break."

She nodded, accepting both the information and the suggestion. "Don't go getting yourself killed while my back is turned, now," she joked as she returned to the middle of their camp. She collected wood around the campsite and lit the pile in the center with an easy flare of magic.

Juste laughed quietly as he made short work of the wards, though he had to erase her markers to place his own.

"Our magic may not be compatible." he explained when she looked at him questioningly. "If it was, however, we could put down some powerful wards. The ones around my home were cast jointly by Trevor and Sypha, which is part of the reason as to why they're so strong. Joined magic can also allow some devastating magic attacks." She nodded in understanding, and he nearly laughed again at the obvious curiosity in her eyes. He had a feeling they would be exploring joined attacks in the future.

Once the wards were done, he moved the horses so they were within them and then removed the saddles and saddlebags. The bridles he left on to tie them up with. He would show her how to saddle in the morning. He then removed what he would need to cook a simple meal for the two of them from the bags and moved over to the crackling fire.

Soon he had a skillet of ham and eggs sizzling away, while Aqua lazily used a toasting fork to toast bread. They would use the fresh food first, and then they would move onto the preserved meats and dried vegetables. They had enough to last the entire trip, but if it came down to it game was plentiful in this area.

"Perhaps we can try this joint magic sometime in the future," Aqua suggested as she turned the bread over. "It could be interesting to see what happens if our magic overlapped."

He nodded. "I agree it is something to look into, but probably not now. Who knows what would happen if we were to try it out here. It would likely attract attention, and if it went wrong, it could be devastating to the area around us."

Aqua nodded in understanding and after they ate, she fell silent and took to staring into the fire, as if she could see the fate of the world within its flames. Stories and experiences floated through her mind in the quiet moments, and she wondered if she should find something to say.

Juste kept quiet once the meal was done, sensing that his new companion had things on her mind. Instead he made short work of the dishes (Being able to conjure water was a godsend sometimes.), before he made a quick check of the wards to ensure that everything was functioning properly before bed.

Aqua watched him move about the clearing, and once he had returned to his spot on the other side of the fire, she decided to start talking, if only to make her feel like she has less weighing on her. "You know how I said my history with Terra is complicated? It's because he... Well, when he and I took a test of sorts with our master to see which of us was suited to receive the Mark of Mastery, I was declared a master but not Terra, because he had resorted to using darkness when he lost his temper. I want to clarify that he is a really good friend of mine, we grew up together, and he would never use his abilities to hurt anyone. But...he fell prey to the manipulations of another master who had come to watch our exam, and began to give himself over to the darkness without realizing what was happening. When this master, Xehanort, left, Terra and I were instructed to attend to a new threat between the worlds and find Xehanort as well to make sure he knew about the danger we'd just learned of, and our younger friend Ven took off after Terra. Our master sent me to go find them, to bring Ven back and to keep watch over Terra so I could let our master know whether he was suited to be given the title of Master after all based on his actions. We chased each other all across several worlds, as things just kept getting worse."

Again, Juste kept silent, sensing that this had been looking for a way to get out in the open for a while. He moved over to sit on his bedroll and waited for her to continue.

"Along the way, I let my assumptions get ahead of me and starting suspecting Terra of doing terrible things just because I knew he was associating himself with the darkness. Even though I knew him most of my life, and knew that's not the sort of person he was. By the end of things, Ven sacrificed his heart to destroy a being called Vanitas, and Terra was possessed by Xehanort, the mastermind behind everything that's ever gone wrong in my world, and I had to fight him to try to get Terra back. And I found out later that I had failed anyway. I got lost in the Realm of Darkness after I'd saved Terra with my own glider, and was trapped there for 10 years, though time didn't pass the same way there. Ven was in a sort of comatose state for that same length of time, safe where I'd put him in our homeworld, which I remodeled to protect him using my late Master's keyblade. And Terra...he was lost within Xehanort, a prisoner in his own body. It took everyone so much effort to fix everything. We were so, so lucky that our scientifically minded friends were able to bring Terra back and mend Ven's heart enough for him to come back as well. It still astounds me everything that we've gone through to get to where we are." 'And I'm still alone,' she added silently.

"Sometimes your closest friends are the ones that you can hurt the most, without even really being aware that you're doing it." Juste said quietly. "The important thing is that once it's all done and over with, you still have each other and you've learned never to make those mistakes again."

"It's a damned miracle we do have still have each other!" she spat out almost viciously. "Terra was nearly lost for good, and Ven's heart was so fractured it was likely he'd never recover either. What did any of us do to deserve going through such hell? All because of Xehanort's obsessive compulsion over creating another Keyblade War! None of us are the same and we will never fully recover from what we were put through. None of us asked for this, and none of us deserved this. None of us had a choice."

"Believe it or not, I do know how you feel, Miss Aqua." She gave him a disbelieving look. "What? Do you think the life of a vampire hunter was something that I chose? From the moment I was born until I leave this life for the next one, I will always be looking over my shoulder. Always wondering when Dracula will rise again. Always praying that this time he does not attack those dear to me. The Belmonts always pay for our duty, sometimes not directly, but we must pay something, sometime. All of it was foisted off on me because I was the one chosen to wield the Vampire Killer, a legacy that was born because my ancestor swore vengeance against a close friend that betrayed him in the worst possible way. A man in his grave for over six hundred years made a decision that still haunts his descendants today, and we will never escape from it. It has cost us much over the years.

"Most of the clan avoid the consequences. It is only the ones that carry the whip that must bear the brunt. Trevor was exiled as a mere child by superstitious idiots who feared his power. Christopher had his son stolen and kidnapped by Dracula. He rescued the boy, but the child was never the same. Desmond and his two sisters had their parents murdered by Dracula's followers when they were still children. My grandfather, Simon was cursed, and for eight years he lived in agony with wounds that would not heal until he was able to dispell the curse." He went silent and closed his eyes.

"I guess we're all broken somehow," she said softly, a sad smile on her face. She didn't ask what he had gone through, though she knew that he'd dealt with something. She knew, as he did, that if he wanted to talk about it he would, and if not, there was no reason to ask about it.

He returned it. "Indeed." He laid down on his bedroll and stared up at the tree canopy above. "I was named heir when I was four, which is extremely rare. Normally the heir is named when he or she is in his or her teens. The whip just... responded to me so well, like it had chosen me. Grandfather said that it does that sometimes; it chooses the next heir. I had a good childhood, and I had time to run and play and just be a normal child, but I also had so many lessons to learn. Combat with a whip is very difficult, and it takes years of practice to master, so Grandfather was pleased that I had an early start.

"I met Maxim and Lydie when all three of us were six or so, and we quickly became inseparable. Maxim thought that all of my training was the most amazing thing, and he begged to join in even though he's not a Belmont and cannot use the whip. I never noticed as the years went by that he was jealous of me, and that worsened when Lydie chose me over him. He thought he could wrest control of the Vampire Killer from me, and.. it didn't end well. The whip is blood bound to the Belmont Clan – not even a distant relative can safely use it. Someone that is of no relation had no chance.

"That was the final straw for Maxim. He left on what he claimed was a training mission, and he was gone for two years. I worried about him, but I could not leave the area to search for him. Dracula's castle had resurrected, and I was on my way to investigate when I met Maxim. He was dazed, confused, and he couldn't remember the last two years. He insisted that Lydie was in danger, so I followed him to where he said she was.

Juste closed his eyes. "I should have known something was wrong when he led me straight to Castlevania. I found out later that, in an attempt to prove himself, he had tried to do what Grandfather had had to do to break his curse. He had tried to revive Dracula and defeat him, but Dracula is no mere man. Even from beyond the grave, he can take possession of any fool that opens themselves up to him. He possessed Maxim, and that was enough to revive the castle. He would have eventually resurrected at full power if I hadn't been able to break the possession. I still had to fight him in wrath form, and I am so thankful that the whip is effective against a disembodied spirit as well. Dracula was banished, the castle crumbled, and Lydie, Maxim, and I returned home. Lydie and I married a year later, and we're still close friends with Maxim, but there are times that I wonder; what price did I have to pay? I escaped with my life and my friends' lives intact, and Lydie doesn't even remember being in the castle at all. I didn't pay then, so when will the bill come due, and how much will it demand?"

"That's a heavy weight to bear, knowing that something terrible will come for you but having no further knowledge about it. I'd like to say that the worst is behind me and my friends with Xehanort gone, but...who really knows what else is yet to come?"

"Indeed, there is no way for us to know. Only the Almighty knows, and He does not fit to tell us His plans." He sighed. "Well, the morning comes early, and we still have many miles ahead of us, so we'd best get some sleep." He sat up and quickly took care of his nighttime ritual, which included his usual prayers, though this time he included a request that he and Aqua get through their journey safely and that Maxim, Alexandra, and Lydie be kept safe in his absence. After a whispered: "Amen," and after crossing himself, he kicked off his boots and climbed into his bedroll, lying with his back to the fire.

Aqua listened to his murmured prayer with a bemused expression but did not interrupt. She understood the concept behind religions but did not follow any herself. She was neither raised in a religious family, nor did she ever see any reason to convert to any religion she read about. She knew prayers and the ideas of gods were a comfort to some people, but as for herself, she never had any desire for such things. Her fate was entirely up to her, the things that occur simply occurred. She didn't believe there was any divine interference that set obstacles in her way or removed them. As far as she was concerned, anything that happened was just a fact of life. Whether she could overcome such events or not was also solely upon her, and she was content with that.

Of course, that wasn't to say that she didn't find such things interesting. The thought processes behind those who fervently pray to some higher being were things she didn't fully understand, and that made her want to figure them out. She might not come to agree with any of these different beliefs, but she could appreciate their value to others. She found the great variety of religious traditions fascinating, and it always struck her as strange that every religion claimed it was the only true one, yet there were so many religions out there. How could any one be the only correct one when there were so many people who worshiped different gods?

Still, she observed Juste in silence as he followed what was surely a nightly ritual, and resolved to ask him about it later. It was sure to be a touchy subject, as she had already seen his reaction to the talk of hearts as opposed to souls and the existence of other worlds, which he had deemed blasphemous, but she wanted to know. And the only way to do that was to jump into the fire and ask about it. However, since it was already late, she knew that it was not the time to ask about it now. She would find a convenient time to ask him about his religion sometime the following day. After coming to such a decision, she followed Juste's lead and retreated to her tent to sleep.

 

Chapter 1 -- Chapter 3
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