Castlevania Nocturne: A Guardian's Tale (Part 2)

The Invitation

Maria buried her phoenix beneath the willow tree. Her family and new friends gathered around her, paying last respects to the loyal creature.  "It feels silly really." Maria gazed at the grave marked with a carved stone.

"Do you feel close to these creatures?" Eduoard asked her.

Maria sighed. " They come when I call. They do what I command. Well....ask. I don't really command them. But yes, it feels like, for a little while, they're  part of me."

"So part of you has died." Eduoard understood. "Like part of you died with your sister." He said to Tera, who quietly agreed.

"I suppose, it isn't silly at all." Maria murmured, shedding tears.

"I will sing for them both." Eduoard sang a lament for the lost bird and Rosie, but to Emma it was a lament for all who she lost over the centuries of her life. Her aunts, uncle, and cousins. Her  brother and best friends, her husband, her daughters who lived full lives, and her son who was all but confirmed dead. Most raw and recent,  the soldier who'd been her mate reborn again only to be taken from her too soon.

It didn't surprise Amalie when Emma quietly excused herself after the lament. "Leave her, she'll be okay." Amalie gently stopped Richter from following her. "She just needs some time." The angel sighed at the grave. "It never gets easier for someone who can't naturally die." Truth be told there were times Amalie felt immense guilt for bringing an immortal child into the world, but at the same time the Mal'akh never regretted it. She loved her daughter to her very soul, and never regretted having her. Both Amalie and Alucard wanted a baby so much they were willing to take the risks.

 The risks were worth it all, to this day Amalie would never forget the moment Emma was born, her husband cradling their child in his arms as she cried her first breath of life, her chord still attaching her to her mother before Alucard bit the tie. That was, if not, the happiest day of their lives.

Still, the guilt persisted in moments like these, despite knowing life and death was a neverending cycle, and sometimes what was lost returns in a different form. Even if for a short time.

"I thought Nephilim were mortal." Eduoard asked Amalie after the group dispersed.

"They are if their father is mortal." Emma strode alongside him with her staff. "The ancient Giants, my brothers' children were immortal from them, but they were all drowned in the Flood. My firstborn." She pointed her staff to Richter tossing knives. "His ancestor, was mortal by his human father. He aged slowly and lived a long time, well over a century. In fact, he chose to pass on his own accord. I took him to the Celestial Realms."

"It must have been peaceful for him, to be taken to the place of his ancestors by his own mother." Eduoard said.

"It was." Amalie smiled, it was one of the things from her old life she remembered. "We spent a lot of time together after his spirit came home."

" I assume Emma's parents are both immortal."

"You assume correctly." Amalie nodded.

"Who was Emma's father, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Not was, is." Amalie corrected. "Her father's half-vampire. He's actually a local legend in the Transylvanian lands. Alucard, the son of Dracula. He should be coming, he promised he'd return to his family within a year. I hope he arrives soon, having him on our side against this 'Vampire Messiah'...." Amalie chuckled. "Well, we wouldn't have to worry about the odds not being in our favor."

Meanwhile, Emma followed the stream, letting her mind course along with it. She stopped dead in her tracks, noticing a figure watching her from the shadowed trees. She whistled her sword from its sheath and sent it flying toward her target.