(Written for MGL).
***
"Can you not help?" Khaleed demanded. "These are innocent people being slaughtered."
"Don't pretend this is only about them. This is about avenging your brother." Esmeralda sat back, crossing her arms. The gold jewellery decorating her arms glinted in the light from the lamp, the only light source in the room.
"They took him!" Khaleed stretched across the table. "That tyrant took him, and they killed him!"
"No, they didn't."
"What?"
"Khufra didn't kill your brother. He is alive, but in the Shadow Abyss."
What?" Khaleed was stunned. He gaped at the mysterious woman, her heavily hooded eyes gazing back at him. Hope surged through him. Was it possible? What had this astrologer seen?
"But beware, your brother is not the same man that you once fought alongside."
Huh. This astrologer. Always speaking in riddles.
He focused on the task at hand. "Will you not help us?"
Esmeralda sighed. "It is not in the stars for me to interfere with the Wildsands Clan. I'm sorry, but I cannot help you."
***
Khaleed was on his own, but undeterred. He searched the sands, following the paths of destruction till he found who he was looking for. The Thornwolf Clan appeared on the horizon, a familiar face leading them.
"All shall succumb to my power." Khufra sneered. But before Khufra could move, Khaleed had raised his scimitar.
"The sands will take you!" he cried, and Khufra was swept up by Khaleed's sandstorm. Khufra was forced to wrap himself into a ball to escape the situation.
Khaleed raised his scimitar, but before he could do anything else, he spied another familiar face.
"Moskov?!"
"Hello brother." the man stepped forward, but he was but a shadow of the man Khaleed once knew. His body was mottled grey and the top half of his body, which was uncovered, was littered with scars.
"Fight with me brother!" Khaleed implored his brother, his heart soaring. His brother was alive. "Onward! Let us end this tyrant once and for all!"
But Moskov did not move into a fighting stance. He simply stood next to Khufra, looking at Khaleed.
"Brother?" Khaleed said, confusion on his face.
"For years, our Clans have been at war. So much blood has been shed. But for what?" Moskov steps forward. "We should not be fighting the Thornwolf Clan. We should fight alongside them. Why not combine our strengths? "
"You want to align yourself with this tyrant?!" Khaleed is flabbergasted. "That will only end in terror, and death!"
"Your thinking is too narrow. As it always is." Moskov stepped up to his brother's face. "Was it not you who dreamed of a prosperous world? Why spend all our time fighting when we can make that a reality?"
Moskov tentatively touched his brother's shoulder, an act they used to do all the time. "Imagine all that we can do for this world?"
Moskov's honeyed words caused Khaleed to sway for a moment. But suddenly, the desert prince caught sight of Kublai, the previous leader of the Thornwolf Clan.
Kublai stood behind Khufra, his face sneering, and Khaleed's rage returned. He remembered the savage man who declared open war, slaughtering hundreds of innocent men and women simply because he could.
"You cannot possibly think that this tyrant can be trusted?" Khaleed raised his scimitar accusingly at the tyrant and his soldiers. "They will simply try to conquer all of Agelta Drylands. He will only betray us! He will betray you!"
"No, brother." Moskov's tone was now chilly. "You are the one I see who is against us."
Moskov suddenly vanished, then reappeared on Khaleed's right, catching him off-guard. Khaleed cried out as Moskov's spear caught Khaleed's shoulder.
Khaleed's hand darted up to his shoulder wound, just as Khufra's bandaged arms came towards him. Khaleed attempted to dash away, but he could not avoid getting knocked up. Another spear appeared out of nowhere, piercing Khaleed's left ankle.
Forced on his knees, Khaleed looked up in agony, waiting for the final blow.
But suddenly, an orb of stardust formed. The shape of a woman appeared, forcing Khufra and Khaleed apart.
"Esmeralda?"
"You?!" Khufra's attention wavered, as he recognized the astrologer, whose ancestor had betrayed him.
Her lips curled into a smile as she acknowledged Khaleed.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Go to your brother. I will deal with Khufra."
Khaleed doesn't waste a moment, and he hears Khufra roar in fury behind him as he slides on the sand away from Khufra to Moskov. But Esmeralda blocked Khufra's path.
"The underworld is your fate!" she cried, as she created a shield around herself.
Khaleed attempted to make one final plea.
"Why are you joining Khufra and Kublai?" Khaleed asked. "Do you not remember when Kublai slaughtered the Wildsands Clan? When he hunted down our brothers?"
"Of course I remember." Moskov replied. "And I will have my revenge on Kublai when I slaughter him in his sleep. But first I will have my revenge on you."
"Me?"
"You have always held the Wildsands Clan back. Your head is in the clouds dreaming of a better world, and yet when the time comes to fight, you keep retreating."
"Because I had to keep the Clans safe."
"No, it is because you are a coward." Moskov did not shout but his voice was dangerously low. A spear suddenly appeared in his hand. "You let me fall into the Abyss below. Now this is about revenge."
Khaleed gripped his scimitar, his heart sinking. He could not believe it had come to this. But in order to protect the Clans, he will do anything.
Not far away, Esmeralda watched them through the corners of her eyes, her focus still on battling Khufra.
Brother against brother. Spear against scimitar. She had seen it written in the stars. Their battle will be legendary.
And only one shall walk away.
***
And far away, on the other side of the world, Silvanna woke up.
She splashed her face in the bathroom, letting the cool water warm her burning face.
Revenge.
She knew that feeling all too well. That weird dream she had of those desert warriors, she knew very well the rage and helplessness that that man was feeling. How strange.
Too wired to sleep, she padded to the dining hall. Perhaps something warm to drink would help her fall back asleep.
Someone was already there. She took the chair opposite him, probably the worst person to discuss revenge.
Or maybe the best person.
"Can't sleep?" Silvanna asked Alucard.
"I could ask you the same thing, Your Highness."
"Bad dream," she said, taking a sip of the tea she made.
"Same here."
They sat quietly for a while.
"When they took my brother..." Silvanna said cautiously. "All I wanted was to take revenge. To kill every single one of those Abyssal demons. Even if it meant I died."
She looked at Alucard, "How did you do it? How did you let it go?"
He flexed his demon hand, almost subconsciously.
"I don't think I can ever let my anger go," he said quietly. "There's just too much pain for me to let things go. Those abyssal demons deserve what they get for killing my parents and torturing me," again he looks at his rotted wrinkled hand, the hand he hated showing to people.
"And as much as I love the Empire, sometimes... I can't forgive it for taking away my parents." Silvanna nods, this isn't the first time she's heard Alucard's confession.
The death of Alucard's parents was made worse when their regiment was labelled "disloyal" for supposedly disobeying orders. Not many people knew the truth, including Alucard, and he spent many years trying to find out what had happened. Rumours swirled around them, and Alucard had to fight off stories, angry that his parent's honour and legacy was tainted.
"But I work on it, every day. Some days are good, some days I just... get so angry I want revenge." Alucard shakes his head. "Some days I can't contain my anger."
Silvanna reached over the table and gripped Alucard's human hand.
"I know." She said softly. "But you'll never be alone in this."
They didn't speak anymore for the rest of the night, but they sat there together hand-in-hand. Maybe they didn't have the answers yet, but they knew they wouldn't be alone.
***
Had to rewrite the ending a few times because Moonton changed Alucard's lore! Even till now I'm not quite clear on it. So yeah. So Silvanna's not a 'seer', it's just that she sort of had a vision of something that happened. And also it's a Silvanna-Alucard moment, but in this story they are just friends.