[Carmilla] Assemble at Braila. Await the word.
Mywork here is almost done.
Nothing here but lost children and confused old men.
The end of this will be practically merciful.
[knocking on door]
Really? How hard can it be to find Godbrand of all people?
There has to be a limited number of things in this castle that he can drink,
sleep under or attempt to have sex with.
He must be somewhere.
You know, for coming from an oral, memory-based culture,
you're very good with books.
It would have been a poor education
if we hadn't been taught to read things to add to our memory stores.
But I am coming to the conclusion that my people are idiots
and we should have written everything down.
- Everything? - Yes. All the things.
Look at this.
There's more in this room than a million Speakers
could carry across two generations.
This is insane.
And the sheer breadth of information about the Castle is staggering.
- Hmm. But how much of it is useful? - [blows]
Well, I do have questions about Trevor's ancestors.
I discovered an entire box of spells about... penises.
You're certain it was one of his ancestors?
You didn't find it under his childhood bed?
Stop testing him, Alucard.
I am concerned I have thrown my lot in with a demented infant.
I imagine he has similar concerns about you.
I am also concerned that you enjoy him too much.
And what is that supposed to mean?
He is unreliable, emotionally damaged, and apparently very distracting to you
while you should be focused on the task at hand.
Oh. Am I not working hard enough?
Hmm?
And he's a drunk and he's self-destructive
and anybody trying to hold on to him may well simply be dragged down with him.
You're afraid.
You worry that you might have made the wrong choice.
So you're trying to make him prove himself again and again
by constantly provoking him.
You forget, Alucard.
Trevor didn't get to finish out his childhood.
He is not the man here who may not have grown up.
Well, that's ridiculous.
And if we don't get this done, then we're all failing. Aren't we?
We can't fail.
Wait. Get me that volume back there. With the red spine.
- What have you found? - I'm not sure.
The ritual language it's written in
has forked a couple of times over the years.
- Can you read it? - Not without that book.
It's based on Adamic. I recognize the roots.
Now, that book there claimed to be written in a language called High Remembrance,
which I've heard of.
This one has the Adamical roots
and some of the structure of High Remembrance, I think.
- Give. - I haven't heard ofAdamic.
Take a look.
Interesting. I see threads of Chaldaic in it.
You're ratherwell-read yourself.
I had entirely different books under my childhood bed.
My fatherwas a polymath, my motherwas a doctor,
and I grew up very fast.
What does that mean?
I'm being literal. I aged very quickly.
That may explain something.
What?
Perhaps you'rejust an angry teenager in an adult's body.
[birds chirping]
[sighs]
You can spend so long in the castle that you can forget how the sun feels.
Don't you think?
I like the castle. The stone stays cool no matterwhere we are.
You like the cold?
When I'm cold, I can eat meat or throw a cloak on.
I spent mywhole life in hot places.
You can't escape heat. Keep walking.
Vampires have sharp ears, and you said we needed to talk.
You're concerned about the others hearing us?
[Isaac] I'm not a fool, Hector.
If you weren't concerned,
you wouldn't want the conversation out in the daylight.
I just didn't want to be interrupted by arguments.
They are good at arguing.
I used to liken them to wolves or bats.
A strong sense of community, acting as one.
But lately, I see the vampires as cats.
- Swiping, hunting or ignoring each other. - You think of vampires as animals?
In a way. They are pure creatures.
They have grace. Animals don't act with malice.
- Cats playwith their food all the time. - [snarls]
True. But it's not malicious. There'sjoy in it.
Not for the food.
[wings fluttering]
- [crickets chirping] - [birds tweeting]
So.
The cats need herding, Isaac.
That's a good way to get your eyes clawed out, Hector.
I mean it.
Dracula gave us the task of creating a war plan,
but between his generals and their fighting,
- and his own attitude... - And what attitude is that?
He doesn't care.
He cares very much. He wants all of the humans to die.
He's quite clear on that.
That hasn't escaped me.
My point is that he doesn't care how.
We're failing him.
Oh. Are we, now?
Yes. We need to assert an order to the war.
We're the agents of his rage, not paintings of it.
We can't just thrash around.
What do you want, Hector?
I want to present a united front.
I want a plan.
I want to move forward and get this overwith
in an orderly manner.
I want you to agree to move on Braila.
[sighs] I know that, strictly speaking, we've never really been friends.
It seems counterproductive to cultivate human friends
when we're engaged in the project of ending the human race.
But we are on the same side.
Is this where we kiss like Benedictine monks
from different monasteries?
I don't think I've ever heard you try to tell a joke before.
You still haven't.
[Hector] All Dracula hears is the noise in the War Hall.
He needs us to be the clear voice over that noise.
He needs us to speak in one voice.
[Isaac] He needs us to be loyal.
[scoffs] How is it disloyal to provide the guidance he requested of us?
If it's serving you and not him.
There are people in the court who have their own plans.
Their own agendas.
[Hector] I am loyal to him and his intent.
But he asked for a plan.
And we need to give him one, unambiguously.
We go to Braila, prevent a diaspora by boat
and then proceed along the coast from there.
What do you say?
Well. It will please Carmilla, so I distrust it.
But it would stop her from making mischief, for the moment.
And it would get the war room pointed in the same direction.
[chuckles] I imagine it would even make Godbrand smile.
Yeah. Well. Don't talk me out of it.
[both chuckling]
Isaac agreed.
That's good. That's very good.
And the night creatures I forged for you will arrive at their destination soon.
Hector! You are a marvel.
What now?
Now we'll wait a short while for Isaac to settle.
And then we'll have him accompany us to Dracula. Present a united front.
Dracula will have no choice but to agree
to the request of both of his forgemasters,
brilliant Hector.
Hmm. A quick, orderly and merciful war.
Just as you wished, Hector. You have caused this to happen.
Be proud. I admire your resolve.
Quite remarkable.
- Carpathian? - Indeed.
The last of the mirrors made by the Carpathian scrying hermits,
400 years ago.
I must learn more about transmission mirrors one day.
There will be time enough. Soon the world will be silent.
God, yes. Listening to Hector made me wish for a lifeless world all on his own.
[chuckles]
I find myself wishing you two were better friends.
As I said to him,
making human friends seems a little pointless,
given our current crusade.
True.
But, at the end, there will be only you and him.
Presumably.
He'll be coming here to request you approve a move on Braila.
Why?
Hector doesn't like it when the animals fight.
Carmilla has the court whipped up. Discord is loud. It bothers him.
Is he still loyal?
Oh, I think so. There's betrayal abroad in the court,
but Hector is a simpler creature than that.
He just doesn't like the arguing.
- So the generals are going to betray me. - No.
If anyone actually approached the verge of that,
they would be taken care of without you ever finding out about it, my lord.
It is simply in the air because they are frustrated.
So if I let them go to Braila, they'll stop scheming and whining.
I think so.
It will give Carmilla some power, but that's not a bad thing.
No.
The War Room will speak to you and Hector in one voice instead of a dozen.
Indeed.
And at the end of the day, you don't care.
So long as the war continues.
[sighs] Fine, then.
I'm tired, Isaac.
There was a time that I would relish the details.
Oh, there was a time...
A time when the smallest details of death delighted me.
I rememberwhen the merchants of Kronstadt disrespected me.
Spending a delicious few days gathering information
about the town and drawing my plans.
Stealing up the river at night.
Setting fires in the town,
knowing that the merchantmen would send theirwives and children out...
but go to retrieve their most valuable goods before making their escape.
[grunts]
- [gags] - [bones cracking]
[chuckles]
- [grunts] - [groans]
[screams]
[merchant screaming]
[snarls]
[panting, screaming]
[screaming continues]
[Dracula snarls]
[archer] No!
[men screaming]
[Dracula]Forty of them had offended me.
At the time, I saw no reason to harm anybody other than those 40...
[Dracula grunts]
and I painted my picture accordingly.
[grunting]
[crowd wailing]
But those times are long gone. Let usjust conclude this thing.
Isaac. We were looking for you.
I was admiring the mirror.
My lord, Dracula.
- [Hector] My lord. - Yes, yes, we all know who we are.
What do you all want?
Verywell. Hector?
We would ask you to consider moving the castle to Braila,
to conduct a full-scale destructive attack on the port.
[Dracula] To what end?
To seal it, and discourage escape by river to the sea.
Then we turn inland, having land-locked the humans
and turned their country into a prison.
I agree. They make a good case.
It unites the court. It lets us move forward.
Braila. Fine. Braila it is.
I no longer have the strength for these petty decisions.
Amuse yourselves. We will go to Braila ourselves.
So long as they all die.
That's all that matters. They all have to die...
Thank you. A great victory awaits.
[Dracula] Yes, yes. I'm tired.
Tell me when you're ready for me to move the castle to Braila.
Get on with it.
I will stay, Dracula. Until this is done.
It doesn't matter.
So long as they all die. That's all.
They all have to die...
- What now? - Now I ensure my forces will be in place.
Then we inform the war council
and convince them that this was their plan all along.
Some of them will wonderwhy this is where your interest is,
after you so loudly brought up the issue of Belmont and Alucard.
And I have already had you forge me the means to deal with that issue.
I am in control, Hector.
You are?
Yes.
He could have done it. You could have done it.
Any of the generals could have done it. But I had to.
Do you knowwhy I had to do it?
Because I am surrounded by children and animals and dying old men.
There are perhaps four otherwomen in this castle
and they all glare from the edges,
either disempowered by posturing man-children
or too paralysed by sheer fucking rage to do anything.
And which am I? Child or animal?
Puppy. Somewhere between the two.
[scoffs] I thought you wanted me to believe you respected me.
I did. Now you're implicated, so I don't need to.
You're hip-deep in this now, puppy, and the only way out is forward.
Come along.
Oh. Oh! This is... Trevor!
- What? - I have something.
Uh, when I say "what,"
that doesn't mean "I would like to ask even more questions."
Would you please- Oh, you are the most annoying, just stop.
[sighs] I'm coming up.
I think I've found a locking spell. Wait. Listen.
Your family have an entire literature here about the castle.
They tried for centuries to eliminate its main advantage
it transports itself through magical means.
Right. So you can't attack it if itjustjumps somewhere else.
Yes. So some clever Belmont
eventually formulated most of a locking spell.
A method to catch the castle
and lock it down to a single location so that it can be invaded.
Most of it?
I can finish the final clauses of it myself.
It's all based on Adamical structures.
[Alucard] You keep saying that word.
Adamic is the original human language.
The one spoken by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The one that was split into all other languages
at the Tower of Babel by God to prevent human cooperation.
Is that how you understand that story?
Oh, yes. The Speakers are the enemy of God.
We live in cooperation and hide our stories inside ourselves
so he cannot strike them down in jealousy.
Huh...
- [thudding] - Oh?
See? God hates me.
- [glasses clinking] - [thudding continues]
[chains clanging]
That's probably not God.
[voice] Frederator!
BDRipped by jirro