I waited for Silas to fill the teapot before speaking again. "So... you say you altered the blood in the panacea, is that why Edith isn't like us?"
Silas turned around. "Hmm. No, probably not, given the nature of the changes I made. Why, what's different about her?"
"Well, she doesn't seem to exhibit our traits strongly, her pulse and temperature are normal, and her senses and healing only seem somewhat enhanced." I informed him.
"So detailed, Aspen, I can understand your level of focus on her, though." Silas grinned.
"I am a surgeon, Doctor Harrow", I reminded him. "I wouldn't be a very good surgeon if I didn't investigate that sort of thing."
Silas' face seemed to indicate I missed the meaning of that statement. "Well, Edith shows no abnormalities, as far as I see. She's only a dhampir, after all."
"Dhampir? As in a hybrid?" I asked.
"Yes, she could become a true vampire, either by being changed, or eventually, on her own. For now she has a measure of your, well, my powers. If I were to guess, you're a bit of an anomaly." Silas laid out a tray. "Georgie!"
Georgie tottered in and took the tray to the living room, Silas and I following him. "You keep mentioning my alterations in very vague terms, Doctor, what arent you telling me?"
We re-entered the living room, where Edith had finished unpacking. She had left my things untouched, thankfully.
Silas shrugged. "The Panacea was an experiment, there was no garuntee it'd save you."
"Excuse me?" I exclaimed, Edith also standing bolt upright.
"Well it worked, didn't it? What were you going to do if it killed you, complain. You were dying anyway." Silas said, waving off the situation.
He was correct, but it didn't mean I was alright with the implication I was a science experiment. "Fair enough." I said. "Now, about the augmentations?"
"Are you familiar with a figure called the King in Yellow?" Silas began, setting the tea tray down, gesturing toward it.
"Vaguely," I said. "It's inconsistent, though, it goes by a lot of names, doesn't it? And it's also some texts, as the same being as The Crawling Chaos, or Nyarlarthotep, or..."
"Aspen, a yes or no would suffice." Silas stopped me. "You're right, though, accounts vary a lot. Doesn't matter, point is, it has a physical vessel, The Haunter in Darkness, sound familiar?"
"Again, vaguely, something to do with a gemstone, right?" I confirmed.
"A trapezehedron, yes. Well, the panacea contained both the dust of one, and the blood of the last incarnation of the Haunter." Silas explained.
"Why would you do that?" I asked, more than a little irate "What would possibly motivate you to combine the Haunter with the thing that banishes it? How does that even work?"
"I didn't know if it would, Aspen. The reason is fairly simple, though, tell me, what's the goal of all alchemy?" Silas asked, seemingly unbothered.
"The three magnum opus." I said. "What of it?"
"Correct!" Silas said, pacing up and down the room. "The Panacea, the Philosopher's Stone, and the Rebis..."
He turned to me, a slightly insane light in his eyes. "Yes, by binding the Haunter to the Trapezehedron, I fused existence, and non-existence, by then having you use tha panacea, I fused human and inhuman, life and death, do you follow?"
"You were making a Rebis out of me?" I asked, shocked at the revelation.
"Yes, very good," Silas answered, "and then you would in turn be able to produce a philosopher's stone."
"Lovely, just fantastic. Doesn't a rebis need to be both genders at once, though?" I was struggling to stay coherent, now not entirely sure what I was, let alone what I felt.
"Not necessarily, I mean, yes, a Rebis is usually portrayed that way, but if you can learn to shape-shift, that's equally viable." Silas continued, seemingly unbothered. "Once you produce it, we can ascend, we can become perfect life-forms. We'll stand equal with the very gods!"
Edith cut in before I could begin another line of frustrating questioning. "I may not know much about you, or magic, or alchemy, Silas, but it seems like you've crossed every ethical and moral boundary you could find, care to justify?"
Silas seemed a little shocked that Edith was challenging him. "Justify? Don't you understand? I'm about to reach the pinnacle of alchemy! Aspen not only survived but he's got the potential to become greater than any human or vampire, thanks to ME! Besides, how any I any different to him, he turned you, did he not?"
Edith glared at him. "Aspen had no choice, and he saved me, you were doing it with an agenda, he could've died!"
"So?" Silas laughed. "Take a guess as to how many people I've seen die, or killed myself, what's one more? I've been around since 1460, having the philosopher's stone would make all the blood, all the deaths mean something!"
1460... Eastern Europe... something clicked in my head. "Edith..." I said."Edith calm down please... I think I know who he is..."
Silas turned his head. "Is that so? Also, Aspen, control your fledgeling please." Silas seemed to treat this situation as a lively debate than a genuine argument, as if he'd heard Edith's objection a thousand times. He was being entirely calm and polite despite the subject matter.
"You're Dracula, arent you?" I shakily asked him.
Silas burst out laughing. "Me, Dracula, really? Close, but no cigar. I serve him, Bram Stoker really did a number on his reputation, making him a boogeyman, creeping about in the shadows. He's very different to what you think."
"Do tell..." Edith coldly urged him.
"So spirited... Miss Merrows, I am not a monster, and neither is he, we simply seek knowledge, we're scientists. I do not mean either of you any harm."
"Please, go on, Silas," I said. "Edith, thank you, I appreciate your concern but we can't afford to make any more enemies."
"What enemies? There's more than the Deep Ones?" Edith snapped, justifiably fed up with the situation.
"The entire Catholic Church... probably the abrahamic god himself?" I offered, understanding her frustration.
"Oh, you've had a run-in with inquisitors too? Must be a new record..." Silas cut in. "Don't forget contractors, exorcists, lunatics and those fucking cultists."
"Oh lovely..." mumbled Edith. She was very clearly done with the situation.
Silas poured himself tea, sitting down. "Anyways, about Dracula..."
"I was born in Târgoviște, in Wallachia, well, Romania now. I missed the majority of Vlad's reign, but I joined his army as a mercenary in 1475, I became one of his knights, promoted in six months." He grinned, clearly proud of himself.
"How, exactly?" I asked him.
"Well actually, it was because I backhanded him for pushing me out of the way. We had a good scrap, and by that evening, we were friends."
Edith rolled her eyes.
Silas ignored it. "Vlad himself turned in 1477, he had no progenitor, though, founded our bloodline as he lay dying. He drank the blood that soaked the soil, must've been tainted, or maybe it was his latent psychic power, because he returned, stronger.
Our army was routed, and we went into hiding, us survivors, but he found me, found all of us. He turned us, and we went underground. We became the Second Order of the Dragon, made it to Rome, where we offered ourselves to the Pope in 1480, and became a branch of the Inquisition, vampires hunting vampires."
"Why'd they accept you and not the others?" I questioned him.
"Vlad was already known as their own personal terror, fiercely loyal to them but a nightmare given flesh to the enemy." He said.
"Anyways, it all went south after the Ordo Flagellantium was founded. It was headed by the Pope's nephew. He and Vlad fell out, and we were disbanded, then Pope Innocent VIII, he issued the papal bull that condenmed sorcery, giving the flagellants license to kill us like dogs. There were hundreds of them, and less than twenty of us. They found out hideout, surrounded us. It was pandemonium, narrow tunnels and silver-dust bombs, we were fighting blind."
Silas trailed off, showing some semblance of grief or guilt for the first time.
"How did you escape?" I pressed, perhaps insensitively.
Silas inhaled, then exhaled deeply. "I didn't. They just... didn't finish me off. I was knocked out by one of my comrade's mace, and the flagellants didn't check I was really dead. I came to, and the rest of them were dead."
"What happened then?" I continued to pry.
"I ran, far and fast. Who was I to stand against thousands of flagellants? I became the man I am today, an alchemist, occultist and man of science. Maybe once I have the philosopher's stone, then I'll wipe the earth clean of the Inquisitors."
"Of course." Edith said.
Silas stood up, regaining his usual smug composure. "I wish you both goodnight. It was lovely meeting you Aspen, Edith, less so. I'll begin work on the homonculus tomorrow, and as payment, you two can become my apprentices."
Edith wound up for another sharp comment, but stopped herself.
"Meaning?" I questioned in her place.
Silas grinned wickedly. "Alchemy! Despite the fact your friend here has the personality of vitriol, we share a bloodline, and that means that I'd hate to see my little clan be unable to defend themselves. Now, you two get some rest, don't expect me to go easy on you!"
He left the room after this, his heavy footsteps slowly fading into the distance.
Edith let out a long exhale. "Of all the people to be helping us..."
I tried to offer some kind of support. "I understand Dr. Harrow is... difficult..."
"And immoral..." she added
"And immoral..." I conceded. "But his goals align with ours, for now."
Edith shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I know... this is all for Micheal. I don't like that he misled you, though, what's to say he won't again?"
She was right. "I can't know, but he represents our best shot at survival, for now."
"Hmph." Edith replied.
Neither of us said anything much for a while after that.
I decided to make an attempt at conversation. "Did you know that despite being the French Emperor, Napoleon would often misspell basic French words on account of having been Italian-speaking for his whole-childhood."
"What?" Edith replied.
"He was born on the island of Corsica, which was and still is Italian-speaking. He wouldn't have started French until he was 12, in grammar school."
"No, I got that, why do you say that, though?" Edith said, a little confused.
"Well, I was thinking about Vlad the Impaler, and impalement as an execution method, and then other execution methods, which led to me thinking about the gilloutine, which led me to thinking about the French Revolution, and from there Napoleon." I explained, my line of reasoning apparently only obvious to me.
"Oh. Right then." Edith murmured. "That's... something. Do you usually start conversations like that?"
"Yes." I confirmed. It would seem I dead-ended that conversation.
"What did it feel like to die, Aspen?" Edith eventually asked, perhaps reciprocating my attempt.
"I mean, I died of tuberculosis, so I can't say I recommend it. The tuberculosis, that is, frankly dying was the easiest part. It was the waiting for death that was truly awful, the pain, as the time slowly drew closer. Dying itself was oddly serene." I recounted.
"Did you see heaven, hell, limbo, anything?" She pressed, leaning in.
"Nope. Saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. Didn't think or feel either, so I wasn't too upset about it." Why do you ask?
Edith looked at the ground. "Curiosity, we all want to know what comes after death, don't we?" She was pale, and she was picking at her nails.
"I suppose. All things considered, a more peaceful death would've been nice. I'm not really afraid to die, well, maybe I never was." I tried to console her.
"Aspen..." she whispered, "When you changed me... I had an experience... I didn't have what you described... I saw hell."
"That's impossible." I told her, "You were hallucinating, you were in shock before you died."
Edith looked up at me, tears running from her now red-tinted eyes. "No." She breathed. "It was as I'd been told. I saw a demon coming to take me."
"Edith." I stopped her "With all due respect, what fucking hope is there for the rest of us, if you're bound for hell? I've known you a day and all you've done so far is protect Micheal, and stand up to Dr. Harrow, for what you believe in. If there is a heaven, and you're not going there, then I'll face god and walk backwards into hell. Come here."
I moved over, beside Edith, who by now was shaking, making tearless gasps. Gently, I put one arm around her, and used my other to get her my hankerchief from my pocket.
"Aspen, you don't know me. There's a reason I was on my own before this." She managed.