****

Karla woke up and felt her heart racing against her chest. She had a bad dream she couldn’t remember. Surgit was nowhere to be found. He must have gone looking for the key he spoke about earlier. She still felt tired and her bones hurt. The memory of what Paul had done to her still haunted her. She realized how weak she was against enemies who use that blood to enhance their bodies. It seemed like some kind of drug to her. She couldn’t fathom the idea of letting something foreign into her bloodstream. But she had no choice earlier, it was either that or death.

She inspected her sword as she sat on the wooden floor in the anteroom. She had a long curved sword. The blade wasn’t broad and it fit her fighting style perfectly. When she trained to become a swordswoman, not even her father had given her a chance at succeeding. In retrospect, it was her spite against the men who belittled her that drove her forward. She found pleasure in humiliating the men who sparred against her. It was like she had a gift for sword fighting. She leaned back on the ground and the memories came flowing back.

A man in the street had tried to come in too hard on her and even threatened to cut her throat open with a machete. She refused even though the fear that ate at her very soul urged her not to. She was surprised to see herself dancing around the man as he hacked at her with his weapon. At that time, the need to survive drove her to action. She took the machete from his hand and cut him too deep. He never walked the same again and from that day on, Karla decided to learn how to fight. If it weren’t for her attacker’s recklessness and stupidity, she would’ve been dead before she even tried to get away from his swings.

Her father tried to dissuade her but after seeing her determination, he had to cave in. Five years later she had become the best sword fighter in the kingdom, to the awe and envy of many. It took hard work and determination. She would train alone at night, hidden from her family’s sight. She knew of their disapproval and that drove her forward. There were too many dangers around the world and she wanted to be ready to face them all. Her master often called her obsessive. He taught her all he knew nevertheless and his face gleamed with pride the day she got a position within the place.

She was affiliated to the royal guard, following the princess everywhere. Soon after, she had become her personal bodyguard and confidant. She looked like an innocent child who was waiting for the perfect suitor. While on the other hand, she hosted men in her chambers in secret. She knew every secret and every lover the princess had. Yet she grew bored of that mundane life. She felt that her skill was wasted and that her father, through his connections to the higher ups, landed her what he thought the safest position in the castle.

And indeed it was, until the day Julius came in the picture. He was among the many lovers the princess had. Her thirst for lust was insatiable and she looked constantly for new adventures to have in bed with different men, and women. Julius came and changed everything. The princess fell for him and wanted only him. Karla didn’t like him one bit. Call it jealousy or intuition; she couldn’t put her finger on it. She warned the princess and asked her to be on guard, if the man ever acted strangely, she just had to call out to her.

One morning, Karla came in to kick the man out of the princess’ bedchambers. They all had to leave early before the king’s servants saw them and reported to him. Karla found a bloodied bed and the princess’ head on a silver platter in the middle of it. Her shock was as big as her fear. She thought of her whole family getting slaughtered in front of her eyes and the torture she’d have to endure.

So she ran, as far as her feet could take her. She knew that her family would suffer the consequences but she didn’t have time to warn them. She shamelessly got away from the kingdom and finally found herself under the wing of Francis.

She wondered what happened to the old man, there was no sign of him anywhere. Even Surgit had confirmed that he didn’t see any corpses that looked like him. Could he be still alive?

****

Surgit’s body was drenched in blood. He had managed to clear all of central Yharnam from the beasts lurking in it, except for two. The first one was the old man who’d killed him countless times. The second one was the thing lurking within the tunnel down in the aqueducts. He never dared go in there. The grunts and wails that came from there didn’t encourage him to go forward.

One thing was bugging him though: if the old man came back to his original form each time Surgit was killed by him, and if the beasts in the city came back to life every time he died, doesn’t that mean that the gigantic beast he’d fought earlier should be back by now? He decided to inspect the great bridge, even though he really didn’t feel like it, but he had to know. As he reached the great bridge and the closed great gate, he saw the blue lantern and no sign of that giant fiend. He sighed in relief but still wondered why its corpse wasn’t even in there. He returned to the dream to see the doll and get her help.

Now that he had echoes, he could get even stronger and face the old man. He couldn’t accept the title he was given. ‘Waste of skin?! What is that supposed to mean? I will not fight such a deadly foe with a shameful title like that!’ He had just realized how weak he was. After the blood ministration, he not only regained form but also gained in strength and perception. That was enough to make him think he was capable of defeating any enemy that came his way. All he needed was to be skilled enough to come out victorious. He realized by now that this was far from truth. The ability to come back from the dead wasn’t the only thing that allowed him to learn and become better. There was something else, something deeper and more powerful.

Back in the dream, Surgit decided to upgrade his strength and skill. He knew that he needed to have enough perception to dodge all of the old man’s attacks and strike back at him. He also needed strength as his attacks didn’t always damage him and he needed that fight to end quickly. He inspected his echoes before talking to the doll. In the darkness that enveloped his trance-like vision, he saw a light in the distance. It was the same as his previous vision. The echoes’ voices produced wails, laughter and even shouted in despair. They were all huddled together and the cluster they made shone in a green light.

That vision took him to a place which felt like he was floating in open space, surrounded by darkness. Only those clusters of echoes provided a semblance of light far away in the distance. He could see other lights, straying away from the bright cluster. Their murmurs were too faint to make out what they had to say though. All he could hear were cries of agony and despair.

When he spoke to the doll, he learned that the echoes he had could only upgrade his skill, arcane or bloodtinge but not his strength. As to the information on how he could know the necessary amount of echoes needed in order to upgrade his skill, the doll had just one answer “Use your insight good hunter.” He retorted that the only thing he could see were lights when he used his insight. The doll then suggested he looks for the needed information in the various books in the hunters’ workshop.

Upon inspecting the books, Surgit realized that he couldn’t read a word of it. He was, after all, a foreigner. He thought of asking the doll to clarify things for him. She was the one who channeled the echoes. That meant that she could actually tell him how it worked. He anticipated what their conversation would amount to: “Use your insight good hunter,” he said in an outrageous imitation of her melodious voice. The little inside his head giggled then it dawned on him. He used his insight while holding the book and to his surprise, some of the letters on the books were visible.

He read the title of the book he was holding. It read: “How to pick up fair maidens.” He silently put the book down and used his eye to look for another one that could be of actual use to him. ‘Hunters weren’t really popular with the ladies, were they?’ an echo was happily asking the others as they chortled at his lame joke. Surgit ignored and picked up another book. “Increase your strength and become the beast slayer you’re meant to.” He sat on a sofa and began his reading. By the third page, the letters became unintelligible. His head throbbed and he had to stop using his insight. In fact, he was forced to stop.

He got a little familiar with the ins and outs of hunter fighting techniques. If that crazy hunter had more strength and skill, it would mean that he also had great defense against weaker attacks. He had to match those in order to deal some significant damage. Among the interesting pieces of information he came across was that the messenger in the bath didn’t only serve to transport him back to Yharnam but it also sold items and equipment.

Surgit returned to the messenger’s bath. The little white creature looked at Surgit and waited for his instructions. “Show me the things you have for sale little man, I understand you sell stuff,” said Surgit. The messenger instantly disappeared into the black pool and soon after that; a screen appeared on the liquid.

There was a list of different items, written in gold. All he had to do was touch one of the items and it would display if he could purchase it or not. He needed echoes to finalize the purchase but it was much simpler than dealing with the doll. Each item displayed on the black pool had a YES or NO written next to it. He still didn’t understand how echoes worked precisely but at least the messengers were pretty straight forward with him.

Surgit touched the top left corner of the screen and the items displayed changed. The messenger also offered different types of body armor. Everything that was displayed could be bought using echoes. Surgit decided, with the echoes he had collected, to buy new set of clothes for himself and a long black leather coat for Karla.

He went back to the clinic and found Karla, sound as sleep as usual. She woke up as soon as she heard his footsteps. “I almost didn’t recognize you with that new outfit of yours, where did you get that from?” she said in a startled voice. He wore a long dark brown leather coat with a black cape on his shoulders. On his head, he wore a triangular cap, similar to the one privateers used to wear. He also sported a gray shirt on top of which he wore a leather vest ornamented with a belt that attached diagonally to his body. The belt was there to hold his ammunition and blood vials. He also wore dark brown trousers and black leather boots. The outfit he chose fit the traditional attire hunters usually sported on nights of the hunt.

“I got you something too.” He handed her the coat he got from the dream. “Where did you get this? It fits nicely.” She was obviously pleased by the coat he handed her. “I found them while searching in the city for that key we need.” He didn’t want to tell her about the dream, it wasn’t her concern and she shouldn’t know about it. “Did you find it then?” asked Karla.