[ The touch is light, but important. He went and forgot the rules of his own game, didn't he. Box off the past, box off the horror of realization, leave only the purpose. ]

The stone was- not common knowledge, but it wasn't a secret that Dracula carried a relic containing the powers of the vampire who came before him. That's- that must have been why Carmilla took the ring, and why she fought you instead of fleeing. She knew we were on our way, and she thought that it was the stone - that it would make her more powerful.

[ He's in the hold now, snatching a ring of keys from the lectern and testing them one by one on the great set of locked cabinets that hold Leon's writings. He pulls out a silver book, opening it to reveal its many blank pages, then pricks his thumb on a spike set into the cover and drags it across the first page. The blood moves, slowly, into place to form letters and images. ]