By morning, Skylar had gone into a new section of the hold, avoiding Alucard since last night's events. She couldn't look at him without her heart leaping into her throat. While alone, she took out a pendant that looked like a golden rose and held it out in her palm.
"We rise with the sun, you fall with the moon," Skylar said quietly. Daylight swarmed the pendant as it floated in her palm. It created an image of a young woman, brunette hair tied back at about her lower back, bright honey orange eyes, light skin, and dressed in white clothes with a yellow trim, using a staff-like scythe with a pink heart symbol on the top side of the scythe's end, and a diamond design on the lower side of the tool. The woman struck her scythe end against the stone beside the deceased body, laid out on a table before her. It morphed into a creature, sunlight erupted from its eyes, forming a female creature, like a night creature, but more human, and with a unique aura. "Tara,"
"Skylar?" The woman she called Tara looked to Skylar through the pendant's magic opening.
"Have they found out about your day creatures?" Skylar asked her, as she slid a pendant on a chain over the creature's head to hide them as a night creature.
"No, but Dracula is getting suspicious, as is Isaac," Tara said as her creature looked at her hands, so confused.
"Stay safe, I'll speak with you again soon," Skylar told her.
"Understood," Tara said. "May the sun's light guide your strength through war."
Skylar nodded to her, ended the communication, and hid the pendant in her pocket. She took a few deep breaths and went back to looking over the books. If Tara were apprehended, she realized that chaos would follow as her day creatures defended Walakia's population against Dracula's forces. She couldn't tell anyone in the hold about this. Not yet. Not until Dracula was dead. If they knew she had a spy on Dracula's side, they could think she was a spy for Dracula. She couldn't risk that. And if they found out during the fight, things could get messy over the course of the battle. Skylar looked over the books, thinking about what could happen. She didn't want to lose Alucard as a friend. But the thought of just friends with Alucard hurt in her chest a little. She didn't understand why. She shook her head, feeling her face heat up. She went back to looking over the books on the shelf in front of her.
"Trevor!" Sypha called out while Skylar was looking around. Skylar looked over while on top of one bookshelf as Sypha ran to the edge and looked down at Trevor on the lower level.
"What?" Trevor asked.
"I have something," Sypha responded. Skylar took a running start and jumped from the top of the bookshelf to the railing on a higher floor.
"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!" Sypha shouted as Skylar climbed over the railing and walked over to her. Dracule and Elizabeth came from the floor above. Dracule was still giving Skylar a murderous look. Skylar stayed on the opposite side of Sypha to avoid Dracule.
"What is that?" Skylar asked as Alucard, and Trevor made their way over to the four of them.
"I think it's a locking spell," Sypha explained, looking down at the book in her hands.
"Wait, really?" Skylar came over and looked at the book in Sypha's hands.
"Yes, Trevor's family has an entire literature here about the castle," Sypha explained. "They tried for centuries to eliminate its major advantage. It transports itself by magical means."
"So if we override it, we could trap it in one place!" Skylar pointed out.
"Exactly," Dracule stepped in. "Problem, unless you can move it by seeing where it is at all times, you can't get it to move anywhere."
"Well, a clever Belmont formulated most of a locking spell," Sypha said.
"So we just need a way to see it. Wait, Alucard, there's a transportation or transmission mirror here, yes?" Skylar looked at Alucard.
"The one we found, yes," Alucard said.
"Sypha could put together the rest of the spell, and we could move the mirror into place," Skylar said. "I don't know how to use one, but I can help with certain parts of the spell finishing."
"Dracule and I can look for anything that could be of help," Elizabeth said as she and Dracule went back into the archives in the hold. Skylar headed to the floor level and went looking for the mirror. Alucard jumped down and followed Skylar. At the same time, Dracule and Elizabeth hid in a silent corner.
"Dracule, it's alright, take a breath," Elizabeth said while holding Dracule.
"It's not," Dracule said shakily, tears in her eyes. "We are closer to killing Father, and I can't--"
"Shh, shh," Elizabeth hushed her and held her as she cried quietly in her chest. Dracule had seen her Mother burn alive, and she could do nothing to stop it then. She also could not protect Alucard. Now she is faced with killing her father, and will lose both parents at the end of all this. They stayed silent in the corner, while Alucard and Skylar brought the mirror to the middle of the hold. Then the entire structure shook.
"What was that?!" Skylar looked up.
"I don't know," Alucard said. And Trevor and Sypha were saying something.
"See? God hates me," Sypha said. Skylar was confused until she remembered how certain speakers understand the story of Adam and Eve and the Tower of Babel. More crashing sounded above the hold. A shriek came from above as well. Night creatures.
"That's probably not God," Alucard said. Skylar drew her sword. Dracule wiped her eyes and came out with her and Elizabeth's swords drawn.