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

Deeper than Flesh

"Lyudmil."

Shaft bared his teeth, regaining his senses. "Who are you?"

Those three words shattered Emma's heart into pieces. "You don't remember me?"

"Does it look like I do?" Shaft yanked his arm trying to free himself of her iron grip. "Unhand me now, before I wrench off your arm and bite out your throat." There was a threat to his voice, and Emma released him.

"What has she done to you?" Emma's voice wavered on the edge of collapse.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Shaft growled, reconsidering bringing this madwoman to his mistress's table and just killing her to save them both the trouble. "I'll ask you again, Nephilim, who are you?"

Emma regained her voice and composure, looking Shaft directly in the eyes. "I'm your mother, Lyudmil." Her voice held a firm clarity. "Your real mother."

The vampire was too stunned to even claw out the woman's jugular for such blasphemy. "You're mad."

"I am not!" Emma put her foot down. "You're my son, Lyudmil. Born to me and your father Cyrus on October 29, 1509. The youngest of my three children. Brother to my daughters Iris and Rosie. The grandson of Adrian Țepeș and Mal'akh Zaharial Țepeș. Please, you must remember!"

"Liar!!" Shaft snarled in denial.

"I'm not lying!!" Emma cried. "You went missing centuries ago. When you were twenty eight you set out with a train of Whisperers to help a struggling village many miles away. For years you studied under your grandfather's mentorship , and you jumped at the chance to help people in need with the knowledge you gained. Another Whisperer clan settled there  too, and you were so excited to reconnect with more of your father's people."

Shaft detected the raised pulse  in his bewildering prey. Capture her now! The voice inside of him urged. While she's rambling mad! Yet, the other voice roared stronger telling him to listen because deep down, he felt her words held the truth.

"Then something happened." Emma continued, seeing she was getting through to him. "Out of nowhere you stopped sending us letters and speaking through a distance mirror. You went silent for weeks, until your father and I knew something was wrong. We went to that village with my parents and found it razed to the ground! Its people were slaughtered like animals, villagers and Whisperers alike. The group you traveled with was completely wiped out! But you weren't among them, and there was hope you escaped . We searched for you for months but we never found you. We thought you were dead...."
Tears welled in her eyes. "And I never stopped grieving you."

Emma clenched her first in a rage she'd never felt. "Now I understand. It was her! Erzsebet Bathory destroyed the village and put its people to slaughter, at least the ones she didn't find entertaining. She did this to you! She took you away from me and turned you into her monster."

"Silence you blasphemous wretch!" Shaft grabbed and twisted Emma's arm, making her cry out.
"Erzsebet Bathory saved my life when I was beaten on the edge of death. She is my mother and life-giver. I'll spend my entire second life serving her and fighting for her."

"Only because she made you forget your first life." Emma gritted her teeth managing to wriggle her arm out. "I don't know what terrors she inflicted on you, my son, but she made you forget who you are and molded you into her weapon. Do you think she cares if you are well in body and mind? Does truly love you as her child as I do?"

"If she didn't love me, she would have left me to die!" Shaft spat, stepping into a ray of light where the ceiling opened to the outside. "In giving me her blood, she granted me her greatest gift; the gift to withstand the sun and not burn at its touch. As her chosen son I am the only vampire with this gift."