Heisenberg could feel the Duke's eyes follow him as he paced the lift. Occasionally he'd scribble something in his ledger as some of the villagers unloaded crates from a wagon into the cargo bay. Heisenberg was anticipating another escape attempt. Yelena had tried three more times in the previous week. Each time she made it a little further than the last. He had stopped ordering the Soldatin to attack her after she managed to destroy her original guard.

She was angry and hurled insults at him whenever he brought food. Half the time they were in Russian and he couldn't even understand what she was saying. Maybe he should tell her why he was keeping her prisoner in the depths of his factory. Miranda might not want to use her for anything. After all, she'd made Lords out of those who had reacted well to the Cado implantation. She'd even called him to check any progress, he'd lied each time. Every escape attempt though, made him wonder if it was even worth the trouble.

"How's our new resident adapting?" the Duke asked as though he could read Heisenberg's mind. He snapped his ledger shut and smiled pleasantly.

"Don't know," Heisenberg said, hardly missing a beat. "If she had managed to slip in here, she'd be dead already." He pulled a cigar from his coat pocket and lit it, taking a deep draw.

"Shame," the Duke sniffed, "I'd hate to have sent her to her doom." Heisenberg did freeze then. As if on cue, the gate to the lift slammed shut with him and the Duke inside. It began to descend with a creaking of metal.

"You sent her?" Heisenberg asked.

The Duke's Cheshire grin almost split his face in two. "I was hoping I'd get to see her today, see if she found what she was looking for. She was so eager that she ran the entire way here." He laughed to himself.

As they reached the fourth level the gate opened revealing Yelena standing ready for a fight. She was tenacious. Her eyes darted to the Duke and almost popped out of her head.

"You fat bastard!" she shouted, pointing a finger at him. "You absolute rat!"

Yelena took two steps into the lift towards him, but Heisenberg stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him and jerked away with a glare that could cool the sun.

The Duke hardly noticed. "You look a little worse for wear," he said and tilted his head in sympathy.

"You sent me to a maniac," she whispered and wrapped her arm around herself. Heisenberg had left a clean shirt for her to wear in place of the one that had been torn. He could see her gripping it in a tight fist with white knuckles.

"Heisenberg," the Duke snapped, "what have you done to her?"

Heisenberg straightened, "I had no warning, she just broke in, took down three haulers, and busted my roof. She's attacked me every chance she's gotten." He shot a look at her, her face unbelieving.

"Did that warrant torture? Being string up, punched, kicked, slapped, and locked in the creepiest room out of a 'B' rated horror movie?" She put her hand on her hip. "Your 'Haulers' were trying to kill me, and I've never landed a single blow on you." she spat the last part.

"Torture? I'll show you fucking torture" he pulled his hammer to him.

"Children!" the Duke said loudly and they both looked at him. "You have more in common than you know." He ripped a page from his ledger and handed it to Yelena "Consider this a refund for my advice earlier." He reached behind him and pulled a framed hiking pack that he placed on the ground in front of him. "This is also yours as well." Yelena rushed over and began checking the pockets. "I assure you it's all there." the Duke chirped.

Yelena straightened out and put the pack on her shoulder. Holding one strap in her teeth, she buckled the chest clip into place.

"Where is the beautiful arm of yours?" the Duke asked her. She glared at Heisenberg. The Duke looked at him as well and shook his head chuckling. "Remember, my dear Heisenberg, everything has its price."

A buzzer went off somewhere above them. "Seems my work is done, I'll see you next week my dears." Heisenberg grabbed Yelena's arm and guided her out of the lift and the Duke disappeared behind the gate.

Yelena was staring at the note that the Duke had given her with a bemused look on her face. "I don't understand this," she said after a while and handed it to Heisenberg.

He glanced over it and read:

"The was a raven that had the power to turn worms into 'greater' beings. Spiders, bats, fish, owls, and wolves. She once grabbed two worms that had been running away and they were then turned into beautiful horses. When one of them had died she threw it away and kept the other.

"The Duke is a shit storyteller." He folded the note and handed it back to Yelena. Bastard "Follow me," he motioned to Yelena and headed off down the winding corridors. She hadn't moved when he looked back. "Please?" he threw up his hands when she finally moved after him.

Instead of going back to the operating room, he led her right when they got to the foundry. There was the door to his "quarters". They stopped at the doors and Heisenberg showed her his family's crest, a horse head behind a horseshoe.

"Who's the other horse?" Yelena whispered. He nudged her with his field, not daring to speak. She got the message and they both stood in silence for a long time.

"Do you remember?" she asked him. He nodded, he didn't want to though.

"Miranda," he took a deep breath, "kidnapped me and a few others around my age. Experimented on us, and tried to brainwash us. I'm sure I was the target, my family has owned the mine here for centuries. The other Lords here are also linked to the land. It's why we have such a high compatibility with the Cadou. I thought I was the only one to survive." it all came out in a rush. He had been so focused on getting answers from her, that he never thought about giving any about himself.

Yelena held up her note, "According to this, you were." She continued when he tore his gaze from the crest. "I don't know anything from before my time in the research base. I was hoping to find answers here, but it seems I've only found more questions."

Heisenberg opened the door to his quarters, pulled Yelena's prosthesis to him, and handed it to her. "Miranda wants you, my only guess is she wants you to be a vessel for her daughter, who died just after the Great War."

"And if I'm not suitable?"

He shrugged, "She let us live, but that could only be because of our families. She might kill you or try to."

Yelena walked over put her arm on a nearby table and dropped her pack. "I want you to take me to Miranda."