A Moment of Stupidity Part 3 Chapter 1

[eiahmon]

Title: A Moment of Stupidity Part 3: 1,118 - 1,450
Rating: R for language, and mentions of RAPE and M/M SLASH. Don’t like, then don’t read.
Disclaimer: Castlevania and its characters and situations are the sole property of Konami. I am making no money or profit off of this fanfiction and no copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: AU. What if Joachim Armster had lived through his fight with Leon Belmont? What might have been different? Well hang on, because Joachim is going to tell you all about it. From his kidnapping and forced turning to his rescue from the ruins of Walter’s castle, and from Trevor's birth and to Richter's death of old age, he tells all - and blames it all on Leon while he's at it.
Section Summary: Part 3 covers the 332 years between Leon's death and Castlevania: Legends.
SPOILER WARNING!!! Spoilers for many of the Castlevania games!!
WARNING!! This fic my offend the religious! Read at your own risk!

1.
Family Ties

The day after Leon's funeral, I wondered what to do next. I had promised him that I would look after his family, but I could easily do that from a distance. Though, if I was honest with myself, I rather enjoyed being in the company of Kalina, Elias, and Sara. I was torn over the whole issue of staying or leaving, and I opted to just stay close and let things happen as they would.

In the early months of 1119, Elias introduced us to his lady love, a meek, shy creature by the name of Sophia. I thought her an odd choice and worried how she would react to the family "business" as it were, but apparently, she had no troubles with it, because Elias married her in the spring. The following year, Sara married as well, to Marion Belnades, a spirited young lad from the nearby village, who took news of the family business in stride. He also didn't seem to mind that his new wife was capable of wiping the floor with him in a fight.

"It means that I don't ever have to worry about anyone harassing her." he said cheerfully "So there's no problem."

I dryly remarked to Kalina that Marion seemed to be a better fit for the family than Sophia did, which made her snort her tea in laughter.

There was one other thing of interest about Marion, and that was that I could faintly sense some form of magic about him. I asked Silvanus about it and described what I felt, and he said that he likely had magical powers that were dormant.

The fall after Sara and Marion married, Sophia delivered a daughter, that Elias named Hester. Elias had again approached me about being the godfather, but I could tell right away that Sophia did not like the idea. Actually, by then, it was plain that Sophia did not like me at all. She never said anything to me or Kalina about it, but it was obvious with how she acted around me. She would never look me in the eye, and she was completely formal around me at all times. I gathered that she may not have known for sure what I was, but something in her senses must have been screaming that I was a predator to be feared.

It was for that reason that I declined the position of godfather that time around, though I did not say why. I'm sure that Elias knew. I watched the little family from a distance, so not to bother Sophia, though I was closer than she thought whenever Elias had to be away for a while, when he went away on a vampire hunt, for example.

Elias had been told the full history of his father, Mathias, Walter, and the Crimson Stone, so he knew to be wary and to keep an eye out for Death himself. We needn't have worried however, Mathias had vanished from the area, and no one knew where he had gone. Instead, Elias kept the population of the nuisance vampires down, like his father had before him, and council agreed to let him be.

In the summer of 1121, Sara gave birth to a daughter that died shortly after birth. Sara and Marion were devastated as one would expect, and Sara spent many days in the company and comfort of her mother while she dealt with her grief. It was during one of those days that I overheard something that I found very interesting.

Apparently, as soon as the baby girl took her first breath and cried, all the candles in the room went out for a moment, and then all of them relit themselves at once. She died less than a minute later. When I next spoke to Silvanus, I told him what I had overheard.

He smiled and said: "I have heard of such things. I suspect Marion's family, the Belnades, you said? are the family that I heard about years ago. The women and girls are the ones that can wield magic , while the men and boys can normally only pass it down to their children. Sometimes there is a boy child born that can use magic, but it is uncommon. The family has been around for at least a thousand years, but they vanished from sight several centuries ago. Some say they died out naturally, some say they were persecuted into extinction. Now we know that they just went into hiding. They will bear watching.”

*****

The following year, Sophia gave birth to a son that was named Hadrian, and it was then that she put her foot down.

“I do not wan that.. that vampire! around our children, Elias!” she said firmly “So tell him to stay away!”

“Uncle Joachim is harmless.” Elias said evenly, though I could hear the underlying tone of annoyance “He would never harm our children.”

“He could be leading them down the path to eternal damnation! I will not have my children led astray by such a monster! I want him gone!”

To placate his wife, Elias agreed to speak to me later, and I agreed to back away for the sake of his marriage if nothing else. That wouldn't stop me from seeing the children; I would just have to be more careful about the where and when. Elias wasn't happy about it either, but he kept quiet. Leon had weathered the storm of losing his title and losing his betrothed well, but Elias wouldn't fare well if his wife were to run screeching to everyone that would listen that he was consorting with a vampire.

So whenever Sophia was away, asleep, or otherwise occupied, I would visit the children. Their servants said nothing about my visits, under orders from Elias, so as long as I was careful, I was able to come and go as I pleased.

Thankfully, Marion did not object to my presence, so I was able to visit him and Sara as often as I wanted. I was given more incentive to do so when Sara gave birth to a son that Marion named Kaden in 1123. Like his father, I could faintly sense magic around the child, dormant.

I watched the two families closely for the next several years, but as Hester, Hadrian, and Kaden grew and found spouses of their own, I began to withdrawal my contact. I kept limited contact with them, but I feared I would bring trouble down upon them if I stayed too close. Sooner or later, someone would notice that something wasn’t quite right about Uncle Joachim. I had my illusions and such, but I decided that it was best to just watch from a distance and only visit now and then.

The children knew me as they grew up of course (Much to Sophia’s irritation.) but to them I was only the distant relative/ family friend that came around once or twice a year and stayed only a couple of days before leaving again. Those visits were mainly to ensure that they kept their skills sharp, since, as my power grew, I proved to be a decent challenge for them. Sara and Marion had made sure that their children (A second son, named Tomas, was born in 1127.) could handle themselves in a battle, and Elias did the same, even with his two daughters, Hester and Elizabeth, born in 1126, which aggravated Sophia a great deal.

Kalina passed away of natural causes in 1138, at the age of 61, and her death caused me to back away even further. Sara was 33, Elias was 40 at the time. The two protested my decision to withdrawal any more than I already had, but the respected it when I explained my reasons to them. One reason I did not tell them was that I feared Sophia causing some kind of trouble if I came around too often. I was wary of her, and it wouldn’t have shocked me if she had set a mob on me to keep me away.

In due time, Elias grew old and retired from hunting, and the whip passed down to Hadrian. Elias was still Baron Belmont, and he was determined to continue his duties right up until the end. As he aged, I started to come around more often and simply glared Sophia into silence when she tried to protest. The two of us spent many nights by the fire, drinking wine and talking. I told him the story of how his father and I had met, which until then had only been known to Leon, myself, Kalina, and Kerwin. He was interested in the tale, and he asked for many details. I wouldn’t find out until centuries later that he had written everything down, and it would go on to be part of family lore.

In 1179, Sara died in her sleep at the age of 74, and Marion followed her within a year. Only a month later, Elias passed away as well. With him gone, I knew that coming around to visit was out of the question, so I waited for her to drop so I could resume my visits.

Fine, I’ll just say it: I really detested that woman.

To my annoyance, Sophia outlived her husband by three years. I swear she pushed herself to last that long on purpose. I waited for a month after the funeral to come around again, and I was given a warm cheerful welcome, but it was the welcome of a distant, seldom seen relative, not like the welcomes I had received before. I simply wasn’t as close to Leon’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren as I had been to the previous two generations. Sara and Marion’s grandchild had moved on to parts unknown years before, so I only had Elias’ family to keep an eye on.

Only Kaniel Belmont, Hadrian’s oldest child and master of the whip, knew who and what I really was, and he and I spent several days training in the forest and playing games of cat and mouse.

That set the pattern for the next few centuries. I would visit a few times a year, spend some time working with the current holder of the whip, who always knew what and who I was, introduce myself to the rest of the family as a distant relative, and be on my way until the next visit. A few times I made unexpected visits, usually whenever a severe illness was making the rounds. If necessary, I would sneak in the dead of night and give whichever person was sick a small drink of my blood. It was enough to break the sickness’ hold over them, but not enough to give them an instant recovery. Most people attributed it to God’s work, but a select few in the family knew who was really responsible, and they made sure that credit was given where credit was due. Unbeknownst to me, knowledge of my real identity was slowly spreading through the slowly growing clan.

They continued to keep the nuisance vampire population down, so the vampires in the council agreed to let them be. No one ever said anything to me about my guardianship of them. Unfortunately for them, knowledge of what they did was spreading among the humans, and not all the humans were happy about it. Those feelings, though, wouldn’t come to the fore for another three hundred years.

Chapter 2-9 - Chapter 2

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