The graveyard sat about a mile from the city, a large iron gate surrounding the multiple graves with their crumbling tombstones and angel statues. Trevor had to use his knife to break open the lock on the gate, Stela simply grabbed a few large rocks to pile on top of each other and used them to climb over the fence. By the time he gave up on breaking the lock and used the stones to climb the fence, Trevor found Stela seated next to a broken statue of some woman.

"I've asked the people how deep the catacombs go, but apparently they're not that deep." She said as she rose to her feet and followed Trevor as they wove between the old tombstones.

"Why are you so interested in a place where they keep dead people?" The hunter asked, kicking at a dead bush that stood in his way.

"Well it's certainly a good place to hide anything really, from dead bodies you don't want to find, monsters, treasure, sleeping saviors, the possibilities are endless!"

"You certainly are very weird."

"It's part of my charm."

After walking through the graveyard they soon found a large stone structure, one of those Stela had seen used to entomb the bodies of rich families who didn't want to be buried under the ground like the poor folk. She had noticed that this one, unlike the others that were nearby, had what looked like demons carved outside of it, a rather strange design to have in a holy burial ground. They stepped inside, Stela stepping closer to Trevor as they went deeper into the tomb.

"Is...is this it?" Stela asked and Trevor shook his head.

"Wait here." He instructed and moved forward to examine something. Stela watched as he squinted at the wall behind the statues and moved to the side before catching a small smirk on his lips. "Can you wait here for me to return? If I don't come back in...a few hours, go back to the Speakers and get them to at least leave the city."

"I'm sure it won't take long for you to recover a dead body, but are you sure you don't want me to come along?" Stela asked as he started to climb up the statue.

"Someone needs to get back to tell the Speakers the news, also I don't know what's down here that may have killed the missing Speaker and I don't want it getting either of us."

"You're no fun Belmont, but I'll stay here and wait." Stela sat herself down in front of one of the stone coffins. "I'm good at waiting to see if someone comes back to me alive after telling for me to wait for them."

She watched as the hunter disappeared into a hole in the wall she hadn't even noticed near the top of the statues and proceed to wait. She tried entertaining herself by counting all the stone demons and gargoyles on the walls, then counting all the bricks as well. Stela wasn't even sure when she had fallen asleep waiting, but she awoke to someone violently shaking her awake and an unfamiliar woman's voice yelling at whoever was shaking her.

"You don't shake someone that hard!" The woman shouted when Stela opened her eyes to find Trevor kneeling down in front of her. "Could have accidentally snapped her neck!"

"She didn't even wake up when I yelled her name or gently shook her." Trevor pointed out as he stood up and turned to face the woman.

"You don't wake a lady like that." Stela pointed out as she stood up and brushed the dust off the back of her cloak. The woman next to Trevor, who she guessed was their missing Speaker, gave her a small smile.

"You're hardly a lady, you curse and get into fist fights in bars." Trevor retorts and Stela casted him a glare. "Anyways, introduce yourself and make it quick, we need to get back to the other Speakers before the sun goes down."

"I'm Sypha Belnades, I guess you're the companion Belmont mentioned to me?" The Speaker said and held out her hand to Stela. She seemed nice, probably a lot more better company than Trevor.

"Stela Tepes, and yes I am sort of this idiot's traveling companion." Stela said with a small laugh as she shook Sypha's hand. "Glad to see he found you alive and not dead, do you need any food or water? Must have been starving down in the crypts."

"Talk later, we have to go!" Trevor announced loudly by the doorway of the tomb. "You two can talk all you want outside, but we need to go- now!"

"Rude." Sypha mutters as they follow him outside. "Now I'm starting to wonder how he even managed to get you to travel with him for so long."

"It's the other way around, I actually paid him to travel with me all the way to Gresit." Stela explained as they walked through the graveyard. "We went our separate ways, but some stuff happened and he went looking for me to make sure I was alright and now I'm stuck with him until we leave this city."

"Don't say it like that." They heard Trevor mutter. "You can go wherever you please once we leave the city and wait for this demon fest to pass."

The three continued to walk,Sypha and Stela making some small talk and ignoring Trevor most of the way until they reached the Speakers temporary home. Stela couldn't help but smile as she watched Sypha reunite with her grandfather, thinking how happy she was going to be herself when she reunited with her own brother- assuming she could still find him. Trevor had told her on the way back to the Speakers that Sypha found nothing down in the crypts, just a bunch of broken statues and a cyclops that turned people to stone with it's eye. Stela was almost too afraid to ask if they found a broken statue matching the description of her brother.

"I failed to find the sleeper, I'm sorry-" Sypha cried as she hugged her grandfather.

"I very much doubt there's anyone down there, it's probably a boobytraped legend. There's someone wriggling with pleasure in their coffin right now thinking of someone like your girl walking into a cyclops lair." Trevor spoke up and frowned.

"Or there is something down there, something so important that it must be guarded by monsters." Sypha pointed out. "Stela mentioned she was looking for something that had to be in the crypts-"

"There was nothing down there that she was looking for." Trevor stated. "Your messiah isn't down there."

"And what makes you so sure?"

"She has a point Trevor, maybe if you two went deeper into the crypts, past the cyclops you could have found something." Stela pointed out. "How are you so sure there's no one below the city that can stop Dracula?"

"The Speakers carry information through the generations, we Belmonts pass things down as well." Trevor responded. "Do you remember what we saw down there?"

"I wasn't down there, you made me stay above ground." Stela pointed out. "Mind explaining what you two saw down there?"

"Metal veins pumping hot liquid, torches that light by themselves, the exact descriptions written by my great grandfather." Trevor explained. "Descriptions of the inside of Dracula's castle."

If the underground part of the crypts look like that...Adrien's close! Stela thought and smiled to herself.

"I'll leave you all to it." She heard Trevor say as he walked to the door.

"No, nonsense, please, stay with us for as long as you'd like." The elder said quickly. "I cannot begin to repay what I owe you."

"You're leaving tonight, remember?" Trevor asked.

"Well, yes, until then."

"Right, I'll come back later. See if I can find some beer."

"I could pee in a bucket and tell him it's beer." Sypha commented when Trevor was out the door and out of earshot.

"Sypha, he saved your life!" Her grandfather scolded and Sypha made a face.

"I doubt Trevor can tell the difference between piss and beer, but I suggest against giving him any." Stela chuckled as she moved to the door.

"Where are you going?" Sypha asked.

"Back to the crypts, I don't care what Trevor says, something is down there and I intend to find it without his help." Stela replied as she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head. "I'll be back, just don't tell him where I went if he comes looking for me."

"Are you sure you want to go there alone?" The elder asked, worry lacing his voice.

"You might come across something much worse than what my granddaughter came across."

"I've crossed paths with things worse than cyclops, I can handle myself." Stela assured him and took a deep breath. "God give me the strength and courage to finish this task, and help me find my way back alive."

💫💫🌟💫💫

Getting back to the old catacombs was easy enough for Stela, however navigating the place was difficult. There was an area that looked like someone had smashed a hole into the ground and she nearly fell in, and a lot of the hallways had deadends or deep drops that led to who knows where and she wasn't sure if she wanted to drop in and find something she couldn't fight. Sypha had written don instructions on how she got into the area where the cyclops was residing in before she was turned to stone, and she now found herself in a smelly room full of decomposing bodies and a corpse of a cyclops.

"Self lighting torches, this is it." Stela said to herself when she noticed the brightly glowing lights on the wall that were buzzing. This part of the catacombs did look like a part of the castle, one of the old hallways she remembered getting lost in when she was a child and still getting used to living in such a big home. She had been contemplating into going into the tunnel that looked like where the cyclops slept when she heard something that sounded like footsteps.

Stela immediately threw herself behind one of the pillars to hide herself and pulled a silver dagger out from her boot. These were reserved for stabbing or throwing them at vampires or werewolves, but she was going to make the exception of using them on any human who had any intentions to harming her. She could hear voices now, and two of them were very familiar.

"Why the hell would she be down here, there's nothing but death down here!" What was Trevor doing down here?

"I don't even know, but maybe she also thinks there's something down here." She heard Sypha argue. "Why are you so concerned about her, she can handle herself."

When Trevor didn't respond, Stela peeked around the pillar to see them with the other Speakers. What were they even doing here?

"Just stay here, don't go looking through the catacombs for sleeping saviors." Trevor instructed as he started to walk away from the group when Stela quickly stepped out of the shadows and cleared her throat loudly. For a moment she thought the hunter was going to attack her, since his hand flew down to his whip until he saw her. The startled look on Trevor's face melted momentarily into relief until it went back to his usual stoic expression.

"What, surprised I'm not dead?" Stela asked as she walked towards him, twirling the knife between her fingers.

"You were going murder one of us with that weren't you?"

"Until I saw who was down here, and I probably would have hit you with it."

"Well a good thing you didn't." Sypha said as she approached them. "What did you find down here?"

"Nothing but dead bodies and that cyclops body." Stela stated and wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I thought my brother would be down here but nose of the statues look like him so he's not here."

"You are not going any further, stay here with the Speakers." Trevor said and gave her a look. "It's already close to sundown, and the people of Gresit are coming for them so I need you to stay here and guard them."

"And where are you going?" Stela asked with a frown. "Leaving us all down here while you run off?"

"No, I'm going to face them myself and make sure they don't find any of you." Trevor retorts. "You're in danger too Stela, just stay here until I come back to let you all know the coast is clear. I need to prove that the Speakers aren't causing Dracula's demon horde to invade the city."

"Then let me help you, you can't hold off an entire mod of angry superstitious people with corrupt priests on your own." Stela pleads and grabs his arm. "They'll overwhelm you, at least let me help hold them off."

Trevor quickly shook his head and gently pulled his arm out of her grip. "Your brother still needs to be found, I don't even know what he looks like so you need to be alive to find him. Please, just stay here and don't move." He then gave Stela a look. "And that means you. Keep the Speakers safe, make sure no one enters or leaves this crypt. And do stay out of trouble, don't do anything stupid."

"You're the one taking all the stupidity with you." Stela scoffs.