fear the old blood

[shootyourshot]

[Rumors travel around in Garreg Mach fast. Most of the time, they're baseless and don't really catch Ashe's attention; he's admittedly more interested in making sure he's performing well. He has a roof over his head, and he wants to keep it that way, so he keeps his nose out of trouble.

But there is one that hangs on his mind. That there's something deep in the bowls of the church, a monster, a beast. That particularly bothers him, hangs over his mind, makes him think about how beasts have been improperly revered or maimed in the past. He's seen it in all manners by now. If the church does actually have a creature they're harboring, he can't help but wonder why.

It wouldn't be the first church to keep secrets, after all.

Ashe eventually decides that having all the facts won't hurt. If he's wrong, then he'll be happy to be. If he's not, well...

That's why he has his sword strapped to his back and his gun at his hip. He has more items he's harbored since the days before Lonato officially adopted him, most of them locked away in a trunk just in case. It's night, and most everyone is back in their dorm rooms. There's security, but Ashe knows their patterns enough to keep out of sight. He's spent his life as a thief, then as a hunter, now a student; he can manage.

It takes a bit of research, but he does find a secret path that starts in Rhea's office and extends to a rather old fashioned elevator. He opts to not use it in case it causes noise, instead climbing down the chain as he makes his way.

He doesn't expect what he finds, a grand room under the monastery, deep inside, full of stone caskets.

And something else.]

Comments

[shootyourshot]

[There's a pause, and the Doll's eyes relax as she considers how to explain. Her hand rests on Dimitri's muzzle.

Her name was Flora. She of the moon. The Great One who made a pact with Gehrman years ago to fight the beastly illness of the waking world. However, it also meant that Gehrman's life was long lived in this dream, and only this dream. Trapped. How often he would have nightmares, tormented by his prison.

The Doll's eyes look at Ashe now. But Gehrman was still ready to serve his duty. To release a hunter from their contract. This was true for Ashe, but you know him. His heart too sweet, unable to let Gehrman's suffering go on -- or the suffering of other hunters. After Gehrman's release, Ashe would battle Flora. He won. I do not know the precise circumstances that led to it, but he was reborn. I found him, and helped raise him.

There's a pause. What I will tell you next, it will add clarity. Why the dream still exists. Why the messengers are still here. Why I, too, am still here. Yet, he suppresses this memory. So I implore you to be careful with what you will learn.]

[distaster]

...The discrepancy in his memories. Of course.

[Yes...he does remember that from long ago, doesn't he. Ashe seeming to confuse how long he'd spent here. Recalling that the Doll had raised him, while growing up around a restaurant owned by his parents at the same time. Nonsensical, unless the juxtaposition were explained like this. One could easily lead two lives, if there were a rebirth in the middle of it.]

She did something to him, this Great One. She brought about this...unusual circumstance.

[shootyourshot]

[Some, yes. And unintentionally, our sweet hunter caused this too, though I do not think he expected it to turn out this way. When he defeated Flora and was reborn, he was not reborn a human. He has now taken her place. For a time, his body was not of a man's. Then, one day, he changed his form. Perhaps it was easier for him to believe himself still just a boy.

She shrugs a little. If it is what brings him joy, then I have no desire to correct it.]

[distaster]

And I had thought — I had thought that what I felt here was only the echoes of a being once present. Now you say that there is still a creature of such magnitude here, none other than my little hunter.

[It certainly is a lot to digest. Something powerful enough to contract with a human, create this dream, resonate with the moon — all in the small sleeping body of his love.

It's rare, Dimitri muses wryly, when he is not the most vast and terrible power in a room.]

He has given so much to the world already. I will ensure he is repaid in kind.

[shootyourshot]

[His sacrifices have been many, the Doll agrees tenderly. There was a time during his hunt that he brought me a gift once. Never before had a hunter been so kind. It was the first time I truly felt happiness. I thought I was merely content to aid and love hunters, but to experience something new after so many years... I could not have ever considered it.

She lightly rubs her fingers behind Dimitri's ear. Be well to him, mighty beast.]