"So what have you found so far?" Sypha asks Stela as she approaches her with a book in hand.

"Not much, just some books on spells written in some other languages I don't recall learning, an anatomy book on fire drakes and the various uses of their body parts, and an old diary belonging to one of the Belmont's wives who was a magician." Stela responds as she shuts the book she was reading to place it back on the shelf she grabbed it from. "Nothing useful so far, how are you faring?"

"Couldn't find anything yet that could help, but I did find this." Sypha says with a small giggle and holds up a large leather book.

Curious as usual, Stela takes the book from her friend and opens it to the middle. Sypha nearly bursts out laughing when she sees the girl's eyes widen in horror before she slammed the book shut with a flushed face and shoves it back to her.

"Sypha..why the hell is there a book of spells on...that?" Stela asks, trying to cover her flushed cheeks. "Why would the Belmonts keep a book of spells of this lying around?"

"I don't even know, I just found it!" Sypha says, trying to hide her laughter and doing a rather poor job of it. "I'm sorry, I assumed that since you were studied anatomy like your mother who was a doctor you were used to this sort of thing. And I thought you'd find it just as funny as I did."

"Well I grew up in a brothel before living with Lisa and her family, but that doesn't mean I didn't cover my eyes to avoid seeing men's private parts."

"Brothel?"

Stela nods before grabbing another book to flip to the middle. Seeing that she wasn't ready to talk about her past, Sypha decided to try and change the subject

"My apologies, I'll put this away." Sypha said as she quickly turned to put the book back in the shelves. "So, have you taken up Trevor's offer in training for the inevitable fight that is to come?"

"Assuming I can find time to, I was considering his offer."

"I'm sure he'll be a better teacher than Alucard, he was trained to fight and kill vampires and demons. And speaking of Trevor, I have noticed you two have been pretty close since I first met you two. How long have you known each other?"

"Since we met you? I only knew him for about a...night and a half?"

"Really? Seemed like you knew him for a much longer time."

Stela laughs. "Seems that way, doesn't it."

"Well, I think you can start that lesson now. He's waiting by the index with a lot of weapons he found."

Stela thanked Sypha before heading off to that spot. She found Trevor arranging something on a large blanket and muttering to himself. The index and it's stand had been moved near one of the shelves, probably to prevent it from getting destroyed.

"Wow, Sypha wasn't kidding when she said you found a lot of other weapons." She said as she approached the hunter. "And you weren't kidding about actually giving me an actual fighting lesson focused on weapons."

"Well considering how you can't get close to a demon and punch it without getting incinerated, I figured I could show you how to use long ranged weapons like a whip or a spear for this lesson." Trevor responds as he turns to face her with a big smile.

"You seem pretty happy to be teaching me." Stela laughs as she approaches him. "Alright teacher, teach me."

"Alright, what do you want to use first? Trevor asks, gesturing to the pile of weapons on the blanket. "Spear, sword, longbow, we have some whips hidden somewhere in here too if you want a really good long ranged weapon too."

Stela bit her lip as she studied the pile of weapons in front of her, unsure of what to choose. If she chose a spear, what were her chances of the speartip or the length breaking in the middle of battle and she was left weaponless? The longbow seemed like a good one to use as well, but if she ran out of arrows too soon she could use the bow itself as a weapon. As for the whip, how long would it take for her to get the hang of using it until she was able to swing it with such precision like Trevor?

"I...I can't decide." She admits and gestures to the weapons. "Lots of good choices, whatever I choose will have to be what I fight with when we confront Dracula, and I won't have that much time to see which one I'm better with too."

"It's always a tough choice choosing your weapon, and we don't really have that much time either." Trevor agrees with a nod. "So you want to try one at a time to see which you can handle better?"

Stela nods before Trevor bends over to grab a spear from the floor and hands it to her.

"We'll start with the spear. Easy to use, anything that's long and thick like this can be used as a weapon if you don't have the spear with you."

From the second floor of the bookshelves, Alucard watched his sister and the hunter, keeping an eye on them while occasionally glancing down at the book he had been examining. They seemed to be having fun, judging from the occasional laughter they let out when Stela would accidentally trip over her feet and Trevor would catch her, or when she would accidentally hit him over the head with her practice weapon. As much as he wanted her to learn to fight better so she wouldn't die or get too badly injured during their upcoming fight, he just really wished he didn't have to see that look in Trevor's eyes every time he looked at Stela or when she smiled at him. He had seen that look too many times in his father's eyes when he would gaze at their mother in such a loving way, and he wasn't ready to lose his sister to a man probably not worthy of her affections. Call it a protective brother instinct, but the last thing he wanted was for this sort of thing to happen at the worst time.

"Adrien! Have you found anything yet?" He hears Stela yell, followed by a loud "SHHH!" from Sypha and a laugh from Trevor.

"Hey look at this!" Trevor yells from another corner of the library.

With an annoyed sigh, Alucard carefully makes his way over to where he found Trevor, Stypha and Stela were at, the three of them standing in front of a large cracked mirror.

"What the hell is this?" Trevor asked as he pulled the large blanket off the rest of the mirror.

"You don't know?" Sypha asks as she approaches and takes a book from one of the shelves.

"I don't know." He admits.

"This is your house."

"Do you know everything in your house?" Trevor asks as she puts the book away and walks over to examine the mirror.

"I don't have a house." Sypha responds.

"She doesn't have a house, she's a Speaker, she's a nomad." Alucard says from atop of the bookcase.

"That was rhetorical." Trevor states as the half vampire jumps off the bookshelf to approach them.

"A rhetorical house that she doesn't have." He states as he approached the mirror.

"Just tell me what it is." Trevor says in a frustrated tone.

"It was a magic mirror." Sypha says as Alucard examines the old thing.

"Oh it's a distance mirror!" Stela exclaims. "I think we had a few in the castle, I remember seeing one in our father's study."

"Some even allow matter to pass through them but..." Alucard ran a hand over the frame and frowned. "No, no this is just a simple viewing mirror. A little of the activation language is chipped, few of the runes need recutting but it's still workable." He turns to Trevor with a small amused smile. "You have the most interesting family junkyard, Belmont."

"You're a cockward Alucard." Trevor snaps before Sypha grabs his hand.

"Stop it." She warned him before dragging the hunter away to the other side of the bookshelves, leaving Alucard and Stela alone.

"Really, why do you have to keep doing that?" Stela asks her brother as she pulls a book off one of the shelves and flips it open. "Didn't our mother teach you to be polite to everyone?"

"Just stating the truth." Alucard said with a shrug as he used a gloved hand to wipe away more of the dust on the mirror. "Also, I don't like what's been going on between you two lately."

"Nothing is going on between us, we're just friends." Stela says with a frown as she tries paying attention to her book. "Tell me then little brother, what is it that you don't like what Trevor is doing ever since we started this journey?"

"He's very distracting to you and Sypha." Alucard responds bluntly. "You take off from searching to start fighting with him, and laughing like we don't have some impending doom hanging over us."

"Oh, so you're saying I'm not focused enough on this task?" Stela asks slamming her book shut and shoves it into her brother's hands. "If you haven't noticed, Adrien, we both have been searching through these shelves for answers that we need ever since we arrived. I only take one break from researching to learn something that will keep me from killed, and you act like I just ran off into the more secluded area of the library to fuck him!"

"I didn't say-"

"You act like I did!"

That outburst surprised Alucard and Stela lets out a frustrated sigh.

"Trevor is just trying to help me fight, if you haven't noticed I've been pretty useless when it comes to engaging in an actual fight." She says softly and reaches forward to place a hand on her brother's cheek. "I get that you're worried for me, we've been apart for over a year and you're scared that I'm going to be distracted by a man I've only known for a few days. Have some faith in us little brother."

Alucard nods and places a hand on the hand resting on his cheek. "I have faith in you, just not so sure with him."

"Then find some faith in him little brother. Sypha and I have faith in Trevor that he will be able to help us, you just have to have faith in him too."

"Are you two done having a sibling scolding moment?" They hear Trevor ask. Alucard looked ready to retort something, but one look from Stela had him hold his tongue on that.

"We're done, now if you excuse me I have some books to finish looking through." The half vampire said nodding to his sister and walked past Trevor and Sypha. "Also, don't let Stela use a whip, try using the other weapons you found. And try not to injure her too much during your practicing."

"Huh, he actually didn't insult me this time." Trevor says as they watch Alucard walk off back towards the other side of the library.

"Maybe because I told him to stop fighting with you." Stela replies as she approaches him. "Come on, I want to see if I actually have much better aim with a longbow than you do."