Castlevania: Of Darkness and Light

The Healing Garden

*Edited 8/6/22*

Time passed and I began to feel at home in this vast empty castle. At first I didn't stray far from my bedroom or the close corridors leading to the kitchen and library, fearful of getting lost or straying into a place I wasn't supposed to be in. Once I felt comfortable of my surroundings, I started to venture further, making a mental map in my head of the castle.

I was always cautious. I didn't want to offend or anger my host, who usually kept to himself.
Turns out, Alucard wasn't the kind of host who was easily offended. He seemed to enjoy my company in a weirdly distant way. Often watching me from afar and periodically checking up on me, just to see if I was faring well. It's strange, he was the fearsome vampire lord, but I felt he was nervous around me instead of the other way around. Like, he was afraid of getting close to me.

"Off to the library again?" Alucard asked in his low smooth voice when we sat at the breakfast table one day. "Yes, how did you figure that?" "You are there every day." Alucard observed. "Tell me, you have a grand castle to explore at your footsteps, yet you resign yourself only to the library and a few close hallways. Why?"

"This castle is huge!" I explained. "I'll get lost if I set off without knowing where I am, and....." I paused, unsure if I should say this. "I don't want to end up stumbling into a place I'm not allowed in."

"You are the most considerate guest I've had." Alucard. "I assure you there is no place forbidden. I have no hidden secrets or dark torture chambers, no enchanted roses even. The castle is yours to explore. The only place I advise you against, again, is my bedroom, but only because I do not wish for you to be scarred."

"Ok, sounds like you do have secrets, or a kinky torture chamber." I joked.

"I assure you I do not!" Alucard laughed before his face became melancholy. "My bedroom is where I killed my father. " I immediately reached for his hand. "That is also where I was betrayed, and there is.....evidence of that."

Rage bubbled in my gut. "Where are these traitors? I've been reading on how to use a knife."

"Oh don't worry." Alucard chuckled. "No need to avenge me. Those traitors were taken care of." he turned to me. "There's a garden inside the castle courtyard I think you will like it. would you like me to show you?"

"Sure." I answered happily. In all honesty I was getting tired of seeing the same hallways and rooms again every day. With my staff in hand I happily followed Alucard into one of the many large courtyards within the castle.

"I smell lavender." I wriggled my nose. "And other herbs."

"You'd be correct." Alucard nodded, gesturing to the clusters of various plants and flowers.  "This is where my mother grew her medicinal plants. She would use them to make treatments to heal the surrounding villages."

"People used to come here?" I gasped amazed.

"No. They would come to her.  She actually lived in a cottage in a town, not overly far from here called Lupu, and helped the people there. My father gave her a mirror we would use to come here and pick the plants she needed. She healed a lot of people and saved many lives."

"Does the mirror still work?" An idea flashed in my eyes.

"No." Alucard responded to my disappointment. "It was destroyed when they came and executed her. You're not missing out.  You wouldn't want to go on a day trip there, there's nothing to see. The village is in ruins and its people slaughtered. It was one of the first places to fall under my father's wrath."

"Why?" I asked pained. "There must've been innocent woman and children living there. They didn't kill Lisa."

"In a way they did." Alucard responded dourly. "They stood back and watched while the priests arrested her for execution. One of them could've taken a stand and said 'enough!', but none did. Not in her home village where she was arrested. Not in Targoviste when she was about to be burned at the stake for crimes she didn't commit. My father lost any shred of hope for humanity when she was murdered."