Assemble at Braila. Await the word.
My work here is almost done.
Nothing here but lost children and confused old men.
The end of this will be practically merciful.
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.
- 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.
The sheer breadth of information about the castle is staggering.
But how much of it is useful?
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 distracting to you while you should be focused on the task at hand.
Am I not working hard enough?
He's a drunk and he's self-destructive.
Anybody trying to hold on to him may 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 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.
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.
- Give. - I haven't heard of Adamic.
Take a look.
Interesting.
- I see threads of Chaldaic in it. - You're rather well-read yourself.
I had entirely different books under my childhood bed. My father was a polymath,
my mother was 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're just an angry teenager in an adult's body.
You can spend so long in the castle you forget how the sun feels.
- Don't you think? - I like the castle.
The stone stays cool no matter where we are.
You like the cold?
When I'm cold I can eat meat or throw a cloak on.
I spent my whole 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 them hearing us? - 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 argument.
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 play with their food all the time.
True. But it's not malicious. There's joy in it.
Not for the food.
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, 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.
And we're failing him.
- 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, get this over with in an orderly manner.
I want you to agree to move on Braila.
I know that, strictly speaking, we've never 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 heard you tell a joke before.
You still haven't.
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. - He needs us to be loyal.
How is it disloyal to provide the guidance he requested?
If it's serving you and not him.
There are people in the court who have their own plans,
their own agendas.
I am loyal to him and his intent.
But he asked for a plan.
We need to give him one, unambiguously.
We go to Braila, prevent a diaspora by boat,
and then proceed along the coast.
- 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.
I imagine it would even make Godbrand smile.
Yeah, well, don't talk me out of it.
Isaac agreed.
That's good. That's very good.
And the night creatures 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 his forgemasters.
Brilliant, Hector.
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.
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 doesn't like the arguing.
- So, the generals are going to betray me? - No.
If anyone approached the verge of that,
they would be taken care of without you 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.
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 remember when 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 their wives and children out...
but go to retrieve their most valuable goods
before making their escape.
Forty of them had offended me.
At the time, I saw no reason to harm anybody other than those 40.
And I painted my picture accordingly.
But those times are long gone.
Let us just conclude this thing.
Isaac.
We were looking for you.
I was admiring the mirror.
My lord Dracula.
- My lord. - Yes, yes, we all know who we are.
What do you all want?
Very well. Hector?
We would ask you to consider moving the castle to Braila,
to conduct a full-scale destructive attack on the port.
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 decisions.
Amuse yourselves. We'll 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. - 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 will wonder why this is where your interest is,
after you so loudly brought up the issue of Belmont and Alucard.
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 know why I had to do it?
Because I am surrounded by children and animals and dying old men.
There are four other women in this castle, and they all glare from the edges,
either disempowered by posturing man-children
or too paralyzed by sheer fucking rage to do anything.
And which am I, child or animal?
Puppy. Somewhere between the two.
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.
This is... Trevor!
- What? - I have something.
When I say what, that doesn't mean I'd like to ask more questions.
Would you please...? Oh, you are the most annoying...
Just stop.
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 it just jumps 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.
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.
See? God hates me.
That's probably not God.