Couple days late, eh?... Ho ho ho... happy holidays!
"Alright, let's all turn to page 20 and look at section B." Alcina said at the head of a table with Bela next to her. Around the table were other, older maids. At the other end, with disorganized papers and utterly disheveled hair was Ethan, rabidly shuffling through papers. He was muttering something that sounded like 'no section B on any paper'.
Bela had to hold back a laugh as she watched Ethan lose his mind trying to keep up with the meeting. Alcina noticed as well, but 'forgot' to mention that it wasn't important for Ethan to follow as intensely as others, as he was only there to provide extra ideas. Something one could do just by listening.
But Ethan didn't need to know that, and if he wanted to pour over papers trying to find the single sheet out of almost 100, more power to him, Bela thought. Finally, he held the page up in triumph and had a smile that reminded her of the word 'lunatic'. He had long since ripped the staples from the packet in searchful desperation.
It wasn't that there was a lot to do, honestly, it was just that Alcina was very detail-oriented. She wanted her staff to understand just what she wanted. They would go over the plans and papers numerous times over the course of the next three months or so.
But again, Ethan didn't need to know that.
"The layout for the northeastern garden by the water fountain. I believe that the flower choices won't go together as well as originally thought." Alcina stated blandly. The maids around began to discuss in Romanian. Bela had to further suppress a smile as this also irritated Ethan. He was completely left out of most discussions because he didn't speak enough Romanian to be useful. Which is strange because all the maids in attendance were at least decent English speakers…
But Ethan didn't need to know that, either.
The more Bela thought about it, the more she was sure mother brought Ethan along just to mess with him. If she did, she was completely evil, and Bela was proud. If she didn't, oh well, Ethan was still tearing himself to pieces. Bela sighed and figured she should at least throw him a bone.
She described the flower arrangements, colors, types, and concerns the maids had with the selection. Ethan looked at the paper, contemplated the options, and replied…
"I have no idea. I'm shitty with flowers."
Bela couldn't hold back as she began to laugh uproariously. The others around the table laughed as well, and even Alcina to a degree.
Ethan hunched over in his seat a bit and scowled. "Oh ha ha. You guys are all bastards. I'm going to do something else that's not this."
"Oh sit down, Ethan. Relax. We're almost done here I swear, you don't have to help with the garden, it's just a personal preference thing for me." Alcina said, convincing Ethan to stay. Ethan mumbled but stayed in his seat. He stared at the pages in front of him with contempt, not understanding half of what they say and the other half was so wordy that it made Ethan's head hurt.
After a while with Romanian chatter filling the room, the maids were dismissed by Alcina. Ethan rose from his seat to join them as well, but was stopped. "They are done for the day, Ethan, but not you. It's time for what I actually brought you here for."
"Oh ok, that's goo- wait what was all that other bullshit then!?" Ethan asked, snapping midway through his sentence. He saw Bela snicker and Alcina smile. "Are you serious!? Fuck me, that was fucking horrible! I was about to hang myself!"
"Good thing you didn't. Now, push aside those papers. You only need to look at this." Alcina said as she pulled a manila folder out from beneath the table and handed it across the table, setting it in front of Ethan. Ethan glanced at it and back up to Alcina before slowly pulling it toward him. Flipping the file open Ethan saw a few pieces of paper, only about four. Looking at the information, it was obvious these weren't pertaining to any decorations or events planned for the spring. There were pictures of the castle, the village, lists of employees within the castle. There even to be some floor plans. "What… is this?" Ethan said as he sorted through the papers more thoroughly, reading them. They all had been written up in English.
"This is now a safety and security meeting, Ethan. That's why the maids are gone." Alcina explained, opening her own folder.
Ethan shook his head in confusion. "Why isn't Cass here? Why am I also being allowed to see this information?" He was confused because last he remembered, Cassandra was very protective of castle security secrets.
"We figured that since you have experience, you could help us further secure our castle. Obviously, you won't learn all the secrets and Cass will be brought up to speed soon, I just thought having a fresh pair of eyes on things would go a long way." Alcina explained. "Now, let's get to it. During the winter, we don't really have a worry about attacks from the village due to the scarcity of food driving the lycans to hunt the humans in the wilds more. However, with warmth coming, the lycans won't be as hungry anymore, allowing villagers to move freely. Naturally, the threat of them attacking us is higher."
"So what do you want me to do about that? You all are more than enough to handle that." Ethan said, still confused as to what his purpose here was.
"Like we said, we just want some fresh eyes on some things. Just because it's been working for the past 50 years doesn't mean it will keep working." Bela answered. "Just take a look at the information, see if you can find any gaps."
Ethan shrugged and looked again. "Hmm… ok, here. Third page, bottom half. I see it talks about deliveries to and from the castle but I'm not seeing if you guys check all your incoming and outgoing packages, especially the larger ones." Ethan began to reread the area, just in case. "If you don't check, how do you know that what's coming in and going out is what it's supposed to be? What if someone hides amongst the deliveries? You could have people escaping or infiltrating. Perhaps even sneaking in bombs."
"I knew you would be helpful. No one's ever thought of that." Alcina said with a smile, leaning back in her chair. "What else?"
"Uhh… it's not mentioned here, but I also noticed that you don't have anyone checking the halls at night. I know for a fact you all go to bed, as well as the maids. Even a couple people walking the halls at night is a good idea. Then you also have the armory that Cass loves to hang out in. It has explosives and weapons just lying around, prime for the taking. Those should be locked up."
Bela leaned forward and began to write notes down eagerly. Alcina was a bit surprised at how much Ethan was already finding. She was a bit upset that there were already this many big holes in their security. "What else do you see, Ethan?" She asked again, this time more serious. Ethan realized her tone and looked over the papers more.
"Most of the stuff is pretty good. Do you do rolecall?" Ethan asked without looking up.
Bela shook her head, "We don't really need to. The workers are rotated fairly commonly and if one doesn't show up, it's reported directly to me."
"How long does someone have between time off and work?"
"Depends on what they do, but between a day and three."
Ethan sighed. "So they have 24 hours to flee the castle? That's a lot of time. Especially if it's when the nights drop to near freezing."
Bela straightened up. "Do you suggest we perform roll call every day? The maids will not like that, not one bit." She said. "Normally I wouldn't care, but unhappy maids are also a security threat."
"You got a point. Well, if the current system is working, then it doesn't need changed."
"No." Alcina interrupted. "While it's rare, it does happen. Maids do slip out and attempt to run away. A handful have successfully ran." Alcina admitted bitterly.
"Mother? Every time we had one try to run, you said you dealt with it." Bela asked, a bit shocked.
Alcina shrugged. "I have. I dealt with them all, but that doesn't mean the outcome was good. I never told you because I knew you would obsess over it when there was nothing to be done. I can't send you or your sisters out that far, the lycans aren't mine to command, nor would Mother Miranda use resources for such a reason. More than anything she would use it to condemn the keeping of the maids."
"Oh… Well then, how do you suggest we take care of this issue, Ethan?" Bela asked, still trying to collect her thoughts.
"Aside from a roll call every day? Not much. You could have a few trusted maids keep extra eyes out in the morning, and make sure everyone is accounted for. You could assign maids certain dorms and maids to track."
"You mean informants, Ethan?" Alcina asked.
Ethan thought about the word for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, informants." Ethan said as he returned to the papers, but stopped. "You could give them something in return as well, to help 'sweeten' the deal." He added.
"Yeah, that could work. I have a few people in mind already that would do it." Bela said, writing the note down. "What else you got?"
This cycle continued on for the next hour; Ethan would point out something that should be fixed or needed extra attention, they would discuss it, then move on. A part of Ethan felt bad for plugging holes in their security because it also meant the lives of the maids in the castle were also being made more difficult. However, he reasoned that if he was able to tame the Dimitrescu family, then working in the castle would be better and even safer than living in the villages. As it stood, they already had a better quality of life even with a wild Cass lurking in the halls.
Magda had told Ethan that he had actually done a lot for the safety of the maids already, as he had been taking attention away from them. If it turned out that Miranda was influencing them, then Ethan could further guarantee the safety of the castle for everyone else inside.
Once their little meeting was finished, Ethan walked back to his room to relax for a moment. He was rather mentally drained and needed a minute or two to recollect his head. It was rather difficult for him to find security flaws and convey his doubts about them. He was a systems engineer, not a security consultant. Going past his still-broken door, Ethan sat down at the desk and sighed, kicking out his legs and looking up at the ceiling. Not a second later, Magda stuck her head in the room.
"I thought I saw you walking by. What the hell happened to your door?" Magda said, realizing that Ethan's door was not open, but crashed in. "It looks like someone busted it down."
"Alcina did." Ethan answered like it wasn't a big deal.
Magda looked at him strangely, but shrugged. "Anyway. What have been up to? You look exhausted."
"I had to help Bela and Alcina with some stuff to prep the castle for the coming spring. It was so damn boring." Ethan said, omitting his actual help with making the castle harder to escape from. "I can't believe they do that every season. I'd lose my mind if I had to actually work here."
Magda laughed, "Yeah I had to attend one of those meetings before once. It was… something. Everything that happened pretty much went over my head. What the heck were you doing there? Were you that bored and followed Bela in?" Magda asked.
Ethan gave her an annoyed glance. "I don't just follow them around. No, Bela and Alcina thought it would be good to get a 'fresh pair of eyes' to look at things. It didn't help they all spoke Romanian the entire time." Ethan said with not-so-subtle contempt in his voice. "I'm starting to think they just wanted to fuck with me."
"Probably. Fucking with people is part of their routine here. Trust me, it was a lot worse before you popped up. Usually, the Dimitrescu daughters are so wound up by the nearing of spring they would haunt the halls, just to torment us. That would also give Lady Dimitrescu a shorter fuse so if you fucked anything up, you were pretty unlucky." Magda explained, sitting on the bed. "Then because of all that, everyone else would also be on edge."
Magda sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "This is the first time that the daughters are… content this time of year." She looked back at Ethan with a gentle smile. "I know it wasn't really your goal, but thanks. Thanks for… not causing such a mess. Everyone appreciates it."
Ethan blushed a bit and rubbed his neck in embarrassment. He smiled a bit in return and hid his face, "It's not a problem, really. I just like to help people, honestly."
Magda came over and hugged Ethan from behind, "Thank you still." Ethan froze for a moment, but chuckled and patted her arm.
"Shouldn't you be working right now? You don't sound as sick anymore." Ethan pointed out, to which Magda groaned.
"Shut up. The moment Bela saw I was better she immediately gave me work to do. I could tell she had to refrain from giving me a double shift. At least I got that going for me." Magda said before walking to the doorway. "See ya around Ethan."
Ethan turned around in his seat and gave a wave, "See you later." Magda quickly walked away, back to her duties. Ethan looked back over to his desk. Across it had multiple manuals and manuscripts pertaining to sword fighting and the melee arts. Cass and him had been going over them rather vigorously the past weeks but she was still teaching him new things almost every day. It seemed that Cass was really a bottomless well of knowledge when it came to sword or weapon fighting in general, but hand-to-hand was her weak point. So much so that simply being stronger than her completely negated all her abilities.
Although he agreed, Ethan hadn't taught anything to Cassandra about fighting hand-to-hand. He kind of felt bad, he hated making promises and not keeping them. He also knew it made Cass feel weak and that made her act strange. She also asked nicely, which was weird too. Standing up and stretching, Ethan decided that it was time to make good on his promise and tell Cass that he would teach her finally. Heading back to the library, he went to find her. A quick walk later Ethan pushed into the room, only to see Dani sitting on the couch.
She was curled in a ball, face only a couple inches away from her reading material, and a furious blush on her face. Her eyes were wide, too. "Uhh… Dani?"
Quickly Dani shut the book and shoved it under a cushion. "I wasn't reading anything!"
"Not touching that." Ethan whispered with a shudder. "Anyway, where is Cass? I need to talk to her." Ethan asked, ignoring Dani's strange behavior.
"She went back to her room. She got rather restless in here and decided to fiddle with her stuff. She should still be there, I believe." Dani replied, still trying to tuck the book away deeper into the couch. Ethan kept ignoring it, however.
"Thanks! See you later." Ethan said as he walked out of the room, eager to get the hell away from whatever Dani was doing. Walking along the halls lined with decorations and ornate trim, Ethan shook his head. Even with everything calmed down, and things going relatively well, the castle was still a madhouse. Well, a madcastle Ethan thought with a smile, chuckling at the silly joke. As Ethan walked, he passed the main armory and gave it a look. It was a rather heavy wood door, reinforced with iron straps and a heavy-duty lock. While Cass's room doubled as a small armory and training area, it wasn't as expansive as the real armory. They had been practicing in it for a while now, too.
Finding her room, Ethan rasped his knuckles on the door and waited for a reply. At first, none came. Ethan put his ear to the door and listened for any sign of life. The only thing he heard was a metal grinding sound. Rolling his eyes, Ethan should've figured that Cass would be busy sharpening her blades. She did it religiously. Knocking harder, the door opened on its own. It seemed that Cass didn't shut it all the way.
Hesitantly, Ethan pushed the door open. A part of him was terrified of Cass being naked again, even though it was unlikely. She would still most certainly kill him for just walking in on her like that. When Ethan peered in, he saw a rather strange sight. Cass was there, sharpening a sickle, like Ethan thought she was. But instead of her gown, she was wearing a loose t-shirt, and some sort of black pants, and her hair was tied back in a loose ponytail with a fabric ribbon. She was sitting on the floor with her back to him. She seemed to be too absorbed in her own actions to notice Ethan.
Ethan tilted his head in confusion. He had never known that any of the Dimitrescu would wear such simple and modern clothes. "Uh… Cass?" He spoke up. He saw Cass's shoulders jerk slightly, most likely startling her. She quickly turned around and looked at Ethan with a sort of surprised anger.
"What the hell are you doing in here without an invite?" She asked, giving him only one chance to explain.
"I knocked on your door and it just opened. You didn't say anything so I was a bit worried, sorry for the intrusion." He said honestly. It was no use to lie to Cass. Not because she could sense a lie, but the fact was that truth or lie would most likely net the same result here.
She looked at him incredulously for a bit, before relenting. "I must not have shut it fully. Please close it on your way out, now leave."
"What are you wearing?" Ethan asked, ignoring her command.
The twitch of confusion across her face amused Ethan a tad. "Did… did you not hear me? I said leave."
"Never thought I'd ever see you in those types of clothes, or with your hair like that." Ethan said, still ignoring her words.
Cass instinctively reached for her hair but pulled back. "It doesn't matter. Leave, damn it!" She said, getting irritated now.
"Looks good, honestly."
This made her freeze a bit. She didn't know how to respond to the compliment, so she just stared at him for a moment.
"What did you need? Why are you trying to butter me up?" She said, becoming suspicious.
"I don't need anything. Actually, I came here to remind you of a promise I made to you."
This really threw Cassandra through a loop. She closed her eyes to try and sort through what he just said. "You promised me something?" Cass said before shaking her head and giving Ethan a strange look. "What the hell did you promise me?"
"I promised to teach martial arts. That MMA stuff, remember?"
For a brief moment, excitement crossed her face before it was wrangled back in as a stony expression. "Ah yes, I forgot about that. Yes. We should start that soon."
"Well, I'm ready whenever you are." Ethan replied.
"Perhaps not today as I have things I need to tend to, but tomorrow for sure."
Ethan nodded, "Yeah, tomorrow is good."
"Good. …why are you still here? I thought I told you to leave."
Ethan smirked, "I thought I asked you what are you doing dressed like that?"
Cass took offense to the question. "How the hell does that concern you? I can dress how I please."
"True, but that doesn't mean I'm not curious. I've never seen you dress like this before."
Cass sighed, getting fed up with the questions. She decided that answering them would be easier than forcing Ethan out. "Sometimes I like to dress in these simple clothes and relax by sharpening my sickles. Those gowns are nice but… they aren't nearly as comfortable as these. I only put my hair up too because the oil sticks to my hair a lot."
"Hm. That makes sense, yeah. You look good like that, you should wear it like that more." Ethan said again.
Cass scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You already said that and I didn't like it." But Ethan could see the changing color of her cheeks. She did, in fact, like it to some degree. Ethan hid a smirk, happy to finally find some way to tease her.
"No honestly, you look very nice with your hair back."
This time Cass did reach a hesitant hand back and touched her hair. This action was then quickly undone and Cass scoffed. "Whatever. What're you still doing here? Shouldn't you be annoying someone else?"
Ethan laughed, "Who exactly?"
"Anyone that's not me, obviously." Cass said, returning to her sharpening. "Stand there for all I care. I'm just going to ignore you."
Ethan smirked. He had a stupid idea that was surely to get him in trouble. "Nah, I think I will stay." He said, but true to her word, Cass ignored him. He began to wander around the room, looking at stuff. Cass had some weird stuff in her room. Disturbing artworks, weapons, and bones from sources he didn't want to think about. "Strange…" He commented about the displays. He noticed a small bookshelf and thought it was funny that Cass actually kept some books of her own. Walking over towards it, he browsed the books. Most of the titles were in Romanian, obviously. Some that were in English weren't anything special, mainly books on anatomy. He even spotted a few Edgar Allen Poe collections.
Ethan chuckled a bit. He shouldn't have been surprised that Cass would get a kick out of those stories. Pulling one out, he thumbed the pages to glaze over the text but found it was a translated version that was printed in Romanian. Closing the book, he went to replace it, but saw another book tucked behind all the rest on the shelf. Looking over carefully, he saw Cass still absorbed in her sharpening. Carefully, he began to take books out and stack them on a nearby surface. Grabbing the black book, he tried to read the title, but it was long since faded. The binding was some sort of sturdy smooth black fabric. The title was stamped in and it was easy to tell the lettering used to be red, but due to the ages, the fabric had given up the impression and the dye long faded. He thought the title was Romanian as well until he opened the book.
Inside was English. It started off describing the beauty of some woman; the way she walked, the way she dressed, how she looked, how she talked, everything. The man who was describing her was obviously love-struck. Ethan had to suppress a chuckle. Cass had a romance novel in her collection, in hiding no less. So that means she knew about it. The book wasn't dusty, either. It was clean. Obviously handled pretty commonly. Ethan wondered if Cass was the reason the book was so worn.
Ethan continued to read the book. The first chapter was nothing but the man looking at the subject of beauty and describing who he was. It was getting rather creepy too, but luckily the chapter ended. The second chapter was hard to follow at first, but it became clear that the point of view switched. Now it was from the experience of the woman. The man thought that the woman he was gazing at had no idea he was there, but she did. In fact, she admitted to always knowing when he was looking at her whenever she sat down at that specific spot every day. She admitted to getting some sort of strange satisfaction from ignoring him. By the third chapter, it was evident; that the man and woman were not exactly the best people. Ethan was starting to really get into the book when it was ripped from his hands.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Cass yelled, furious. She held the book in a tight grip away from Ethan. He just looked at her and shrugged.
"I saw the book and got interested. I didn't know you liked romance books." Ethan said, finishing his sentence with a smirk.
She stomped her foot and seethed. "I don't!"
"Then what's that doing here? And why are you so upset that I found it, huh?" Ethan pointed out. Cass didn't have a good answer for this, so she just grabbed Ethan by the front of his shirt and began to drag him towards her door.
"It's none of your damn business! Now get the hell out!"
It was evident she was embarrassed. Ethan had to laugh a bit at Cass with how intense she was being over the book. He tried to remove her hand, but without his mold he wasn't strong enough. Being desperate to get some answers, he resorted to some rather immature tactics. He grabbed her arm and licked it.
"Eww! Fucking nasty!" She yelped, letting go to wipe off the saliva. "Are you actually fucking deranged!? Who does that! Not even Daniela would do that!"
Ethan snatched the book while Cass was distracted. Her head instantly snapped to him. He saw death itself in her eyes. Not letting her get the jump, Ethan ran. He crashed out of her door, startling a pack of maids, and tore down the hall. He didn't need to turn to look to know who it was screaming like a pissed-off jaguar behind him. Taking a random turn, Ethan kept running. His heart was about to blow out of his chest. He missed this feeling almost of danger.
As he ran, he tried to think of a way to get ahead in this situation. He quickly decided to try and read the title before the fury of hell itself caught up to him. Looking down, he still couldn't make a damn word of the title. However, realizing that this was obviously a book printed later in life, he could try and learn the author's name and date of publication. Opening the book to the first page, he found a small mark that said Gregory McKnight, and the year; 1980. That was more than enough for Ethan. He set the back down on the ground where he knew Cass would see, but kept running his ass off.
After a moment, he stopped around a corner. He listened for Cass to come swarming around but she never did. Ethan waited a minute, then another. After a couple more, it was clear that she wasn't pursuing him anymore. Sighing with relief, Ethan walked towards the Duke's business front. He knew the made was great at gathering information and since he had a name and year, that could help narrow it down. Watching his back and peering around every corner, just in case, Ethan made it safely to the large merchant.
"Ethan? What can I help you with. If you've come to see what I found about what we discussed earlier, I know I am a miracle worker, but even that's stretching my limits." Duke said.
Ethan shook his head, "No, but I do need you to get some info for me. It'll be easy, honestly. I'm trying to find a book, but I don't know the title. Only the author's name and what year the specific book I had was printed."
"Oh well, in that case, consider it done! Just tell me what you know."
"The author is some guy named 'Gregory McKnight'. The specific book I'm looking for is a romance novel, published in 1980 or before. I only read the first couple of chapters before I was- ahem, interrupted. I liked the story and want to continue reading it."
"I will look into it, my boy. Seems easy enough." Duke said. "While you're here, care to make a purchase?" Duke smiled before motioning towards his wares. Ethan thought for a moment and looked at the items for a brief moment.
"Hm… nah, not right now. I don't really need anything and nothing is sticking out." Ethan said, declining the offer. Duke smiled all the same, leaning back in his seat.
"Of course, of course. Just trying to capitalize on those impulse purchases." Duke laughed out. "You should come by tonight, Ethan. I should have that book by then."
Ethan nodded. "You got it. I'm in need of a few beers anyway."
"That's the spirit!"
"See you later tonight, Duke." Ethan waved. The Duke gave a silent wave back, returning to his tasks at hand.
Ethan didn't know what else to do today. He was going to start his little investigation tomorrow, Cass would most likely kill him if he popped back up at their room, Dani was… busy, and Bela was most likely busy with her job, and he most likely spent enough time around Alcina for one day. He thought about tracking down Magda but she was still busy, probably. He decided to go back to the infirmary and annoy Adina some more.
Walking into the sterile room heavily scented with antiseptics, he didn't see Adina. He saw one woman there, taking her own temperature, but she just ignored him. He tried to place her face, but with not being able to hold a conversation with most of the workers here in the castle, it was hard to form the bonds necessary to remember someone.
He gave the room once over, just looking for anything interesting, but found nothing. Shocker. Sighing, he turned away and walked around. He would much rather not get lost in the upstairs again, so he stayed on the current floor. Shrugging, Ethan decided to go do what he usually did when he was bored with nothing to do.
Take a nap.
Ethan found one of the smaller common rooms and laid down on the couch. He didn't need to try hard to fall asleep, as he was already tired. As soon as he hit the pillow, he felt himself doze off…
Ethan slowly woke up, pulling himself off the couch. He yawned and looked around. No one had woken him up. Sighing as he stood up and stretched, Ethan had a strange feeling that he had most likely slept for way longer than he had planned. Rubbing his face with groggy annoyance, he slowly walked out of the room. Ethan walked down the hall and saw a window, and the inky blackness outside told him that yes, he did indeed fall asleep for far too long. Groaning, Ethan was pissed that he most likely missed dinner. He was really hungry and the kitchen was most likely cleaned up for the night. That's when he remembered seeing that Duke sold foodstuffs. Stomach growling in anticipation, Ethan made his way to the friendly merchant.
Pushing his way in, Duke was shuffling some papers when he looked up and smiled. "Ethan! What a pleasure! I was starting to think I wouldn't see you tonight."
"Sorry about that." Ethan said, sighing. "I fell asleep and just woke up. I have no idea what time it even is." Ethan continued while slumping in his chair.
Duke chuckled a bit, "Stressful day I take it. It's a little past 11, I assumed you missed dinner?"
"Yeah. Speaking of, wouldn't happen to have anything I can eat for sale, would you?" Ethan asked, hopeful.
Duke nodded, then smiled. "Of course, but for you my boy? On the house. I hate to see a friend go hungry." Duke said while reaching for some cured meats and hard cheese. "I don't have much more to offer but these are amongst my most bought, and they are very good."
Ethan took the meat and saw it was some sort of hard ground meat sausage. It smelt like some sort of beef, maybe also mixed with pork. The cheese he couldn't place. It was most likely some generic hard cheese, perhaps goat cheese.
Ethan quickly began chewing on the food, sighing in comfort. The flavors were simple but good and it immediately made him feel better. "So did you find anything about that book?" Ethan asked between bites.
Duke nodded, "I did. I believe I even found it." Duke said, pulling out a copy. "The author and book didn't sell that well. While the quality of his writing seemed to be fine, the subjects of his books were not popular. This one, however, was his 'best' selling book. Again, not too popular, but it didn't do too terribly. Here, give it a look and tell me if it's what you had earlier."
Ethan wiped his hands clean, not wanting to tarnish the book. Cracking it open and finding the first chapter, Ethan nodded. "Yep, this is it." Closing it, Ethan read the title. Forever Mine was the title. Happy to finally know, Ethan set it back down. "How much?"
Duke looked a bit confused, before looking at the book and laughing. "Bah, don't worry about it. I didn't even need to leave the castle to find it. Just a quick search on an author was all I needed, which is easy to do online."
"You just googled it?"
"Pretty much!" Duke said with a straight face.
"How? You don't have a computer! Or a phone!" Ethan asked, a bit curious how the man looked something up online.
"Not me, no, but I have an outside contact who does. I just gave him a ring and told him. He gave me the result in only a minute. I already had an incoming delivery I was able to add the book to it at no extra charge."
"You're too nice Duke." Ethan said with a nod. Duke simply returned it with a smile as well.
"Here, my boy. A drink to wash the food down with." Duke said, pulling out two beers; one for him and one for Ethan. Ethan reached and took the beer.
"Thanks, Duke. You're a lifesaver, I swear." Ethan complimented the man's generosity.
Duke simply waved it off. "First-class customer service for my friend, Ethan. Nothing less."
"I'm your friend, huh?" Ethan asked. Duke simply laughed.
"A friend indeed." Duke said, taking his own beer to his lips for a drink. "Though I would enjoy the company, you should properly get some rest. The next couple of days or even weeks are going to be rather serious, what with this investigation you are put on."
"Yeah, I suppose you are right. Can't spend too long here, sorry." Ethan said as he continued to eat. "I'm worried what would happen if Miranda found out. It wouldn't be good…"
"No, it would not…" Duke agreed solemnly. "Regardless Ethan, you have unlimited access to me and my resources for this little mission of yours. Ethan… if something goes extremely wrong, I can get you out of the castle and out of these lands but… your daughter. I can't."
"No. I won't leave my daughter." Ethan said sternly.
"I assumed that, but I had to offer regardless." Duke said with a sigh. He knew Ethan's resolve, so the answer was no surprise.
"I understand, Duke." Ethan said as he threw the last bite of meat in his mouth. With a grunt, he stood. "I'm going to get to bed. Like you said, busy days are coming. I will need my rest."
"Take care of yourself, Ethan Winters." Duke said with a serious expression.
"Same goes for you, my friend." Ethan replied with a smile before walking out, leaving a now chuckling Duke to finish his affairs for the night. Ethan walked leisurely down the hall. He was still a bit tired but nearly as much as earlier. He knew he was going to wake up earlier than usual because of his late nap, and perhaps that was a good thing. He needed to get a jump on his mission, and an early start was a good way to do that.
Walking to his room, he was relieved to see that his door was already replaced. He figured it wouldn't be fixed until tomorrow. Maybe they had spares just in case things like this happened. Regardless, Ethan crashed down onto his bed after pealing most of his clothes off and promptly fell asleep.
Ethan's eyes flittered open. It felt like he had just gone to sleep, but quickly checking his watch told him it was 6 AM. That was far earlier than he was expecting to wake up, but Ethan decided to get up. Pulling himself from bed, Ethan decided to just dress in the clothes he wore the previous night. He assumed he was going to get dirty while in the dungeon anyway, so why not. Pulling his pants on, he trudged out of the room. It felt strange moving around the castle this early in the morning. He assumed that the only group awake was most likely maids getting things ready for breakfast and those who assisted the family in their morning routines. As Ethan approached the heavy oak door that led to the dungeons, Ethan hesitated. Memories of when he first arrived in the castle came through his mind, and not to mention the horrors he experienced down there.
While Ethan did trust Alcina to make sure the monsters down there were locked up, he didn't want to take any chances. Conintuined past the door, he headed for the armory. A full sword would be a bit much to take down there with him, but a large knife would be perfect. Quickly stepping into the room, he reached for the first short blade he saw and went back towards the dungeon. He was happy that they had yet to implement the advice he gave them the previous day, or else he would've just been standing in front of a locked door instead. As he entered the dungeon, he clicked his tongue in annoyance. He forgot a light source. There were no torches on the walls, nor did he have a flashlight. He groaned in annoyance because now he would have to go to Duke and hope the man was awake.
Walking back out, Ethan jogged down the halls. He was wanting to get this stuff done and over with as soon as possible. Luckily, as he pushed the door to Duke's little area open, the fat man was there with a cup of coffee. "Ethan? What hells are you doing awake?"
"Good morning to you, too." Ethan laughed a bit. "I didn't need much sleep, had that long nap before, remember? Anyway, I decided to get a jump on that request from Alcina, but I find myself in need of something."
Duke stared at Ethan for a moment before shaking himself out of the daze, and a smile crept across his face. "Of course! How silly of me. Sorry, yet to have my morning caffeine." Duke set the mug down and clapped his hands in typical Duke fashion. "What is it that you require?"
"A flashlight. It's a bit dark in the dungeons and I'd rather not stumble around it blindly."
Duke laughed in agreement, "Yes, I do say that would cause a few headaches for you." Digging around in a side compartment, Duke produced a standard flashlight. "Here you go. Batteries are included." Duke said with a chuckle at the little joke as he handed the tool to Ethan, who then checked to see if it was in working order. "As I previously said, don't worry about the price for my services related to this little endeavor."
Ethan nodded in appreciation. "Thanks a lot, Duke. If I find anything of interest, I'll swing by and let you take a look."
"Sounds like an excellent idea, my boy. Just don't forget to include Lady Dimitrescu as well." He said with a gentle chuckle. "Do be careful down there!"
"Oh trust me, I will." Ethan said with a sigh before walking out. "See you later."
Back down in the damp, dark dungeon, Ethan clicked the flashlight to life. It shined brightly and illuminated the area well. Sighing, Ethan pressed on. There was no real rhyme or reason to the dungeon's layout, instead it looked to be utilized at random. Some areas were used for storage while others were some sort of workspace, cluttered with torture devices. He shuttered at the sight of them…
The idea that he was the only thing that's keeping the Dimitrescu family from enacting utter horror on their staff was a bit heavy. He felt responsible for every drop of blood on the devices, even though it had been there long before his arrival. Deciding to press on, the only thing related to anything Miranda did down here were moldy papers. Most of what he could make out seemed to be written a long time ago, and none of it was useful. The only thing he could find was something about the Cadou. Luckily it seemed that Miranda wrote her notes in English, for whatever reason.
From reading some notes and making out what he could from one particular station, it was clear that for a very long time, Miranda has had some sort of main goal. Something more concrete than Evaline's mission of having a family. Miranda had been obviously performing serious research for a long time. Whatever she was after, it was complex. She was working towards something, but never mentioned what it was.
Ethan sighed. He was getting a little bit, but it was hardly amounting to much. It was all so old and outdated. Collecting any other books or notes he could find, Ethan left the dungeon, wanting to sit down and sift through it all in better lighting, and less hostile environments. Perhaps he could even ask Alcina some questions, get a bigger picture.
Making his way towards his room, he pushed the door open and sat down. Laying the moldy papers down, he gently sorted through them and even transcribed what he read. Most of it didn't make sense to him, as it was mostly data records or observations about experiments that had failed. It seemed Miranda either may have kept or destroyed her more vital papers. Regardless, Ethan wrote up a report of sorts, listing anything that could help, as well as questions he would ask.
Deciding not to wait, Ethan left to find Alcina. It wasn't hard, as it seemed every woman in the house was aware of where she was. Luckily, it seemed she was in her room. Perfect. Knocking on the door and calling out, Ethan was quickly allowed access.
"Ethan? What is it?" She asked, busy with paperwork.
"I found some papers in the dungeon-"
Alcina quickly turned around, surprise on her face. "Already?"
"Before you get too excited, I'm not sure these will be all that helpful. Time hasn't been kind to what I found, nor did it seem particularly important. I figured it might be better for you to look over them, but in the meantime, I wrote up a summary of what I thought was important." He said, showing the paper. "I also have a few questions."
"Ok." Alcina said, reclining a bit. "Ask."
"Firstly, she wrote everything in English. I figured being, you know, a Romanian in Romania, she would write in Romanian."
"In the early days, she worked with an English man. I never personally met him, they had gone their separate ways long before I arrived here, but I assume it's most likely because of that." She answered easily. "Anything else?"
"What exactly is Miranda's goal, or goals? She's obviously trying to reach some sort of objective, but I can't tell what." He asked, a bit uneasy. He felt it wasn't a good question to ask. Seeing Alcinca's eyes look to the floor and a grimace form, he knew his feeling was right.
"That is something that I can not exactly answer. Not because I am forbidden to tell anyone… it's that I don't know. The short-term answer is simple; control. She wants to control the villages and use them to experiment on. But for what, I can't say. Perhaps she is just trying to learn anything she can. We've all wondered, but we know we should not ask."
"Most of these notes just talk about the properties of the mold itself or are documenting its effects. It seems nothing too advanced was discovered here…"
"She has a lab now, that's where she performed most of her larger experiments. I occasionally help her." Alcina added. "Before you ask, no, I can't get you in there or can I get you any of her reports. What I can tell you is that she kept things a secret, even from me. Most of the time I would be playing lab assistant and not even know what it was I was doing."
"So wait…" Ethan began, forgetting who exactly he was talking to. "You blindly follow this lady because…?"
The only reason Ethan didn't wind up dead, aside from Miranda's orders, was because Alcina knew Ethan had a point, but she growled at him just the same. "Watch how you speak to me, Ethan Winters. You're as bad as my daughters."
Ethan looked down, feeling a bit intimidated. "Right, sorry."
"...it's because I owe her." Alcina almost whispered sadly, turning around. "I owe her too much, and I need her."
"You… owe her and need her?" He asked, confused.
He saw Alcina's shoulders drop a bit, and the woman took her hat off. She fiddled with the brim a bit before throwing it on her bed. With a sigh, she stood and turned around. "Well, for starters, she allowed me to have my daughters. For reasons you don't need to know, I couldn't have kids- before or after the mold."
"Oh… I see. That's understandable." Ethan agreed.
"She also allowed me to retain my family's castle. Aside from a name, I have no right to this castle. By right, it was hers, and she gave it to me, and allowed me servants."
She sucked in a breath before continuing.
"But most importantly, I need her to provide me a supply of blood and a safe place to consume it."
"I'm sorry, what?" Ethan asked, stunned.
"I was sick- I still am sick." She admitted. "Well, sick isn't the right word. I have an illness. I used to know the name, but it never mattered. The only way I knew to keep it at bay was to drink blood. When I was younger, pig blood was enough."
Ethan recoiled a bit in disgust. "That doesn't sound too great."
"Blood-infused food is common in Europe." She stated with a smirk. "Anyway; when I grew older, it stopped working. I needed human blood. So I started… harvesting it. I had to relocate often and stay ahead of investigators. When I came here, I decided to die."
"Oh shit-" the words just came out from Ethan's lips. "I- what? Why did you…"
"I was tired of always being on the run. That's when I met Miranda and she helped me. However, it seems that this damn mold is a finicky bastard. It changed so much of me, but it left the damn illness alone. I still need to drink blood."
Ethan was curious at the mention of this. "What would happen if you didn't?"
"If I didn't drink blood?" She asked, clarifying the question. Ethan nodded. Alcina just shrugged, which made him chuckle. "Honestly I don't know. I just started getting sick and the only thing that fixed it was blood. It may kill me, it may not."
"Should you be telling me this?" He asked, humorously.
She responded lightly as well, "Should I be telling you this?"
"I doubt I could leverage it against you. You'd just kick my ass."
"Exactly. Now, back to the matter at hand. Even if I didn't owe Mother Miranda for everything I have, I'm still at the mercy of her resources, not to mention her."
Suddenly something popped into Ethan's mind. He let out a sharp 'oh!' and spoke quickly. "Alcina! The other day, Adina told me something!"
Alcina looked at Ethan. "Yes? What did she say?"
"She had my blood drawn and examined. They looked at the mold spores in my blood. She figured out that the mold inside me is a variant of the mold from here."
"A variant? From here?" Alcina scowled. "That doesn't make any sense." Alcina said, confused. Sitting down, her head tilted as she thought out loud.
"Why doesn't it make any sense?" Ethan asked, worried.
"The local mold has never extended beyond this area. It just can't grow that far away from the source. The mold itself has been around for a long time. It was already rather old when Mother Miranda discovered it. It's never once expanded its territory beyond where it is now."
"Why hasn't it?"
"I don't know, I'm not a mycologist. But either way, it's suspicious that you're infected with it."
"Suspicious?"
"Like I said, the mold hasn't expanded in years. Someone must've transported it out of here."
"Who would've done that?" Ethan asked. He was starting to get worried. The idea of someone purposely getting the mold out of the area, for whatever reason, was a worrying one.
"Technically, anyone. The mold itself is not typically exposed on the surface, but the spores are found in the dirt. Someone could be sending dirt samples to companies or other organizations. However, most of the townspeople don't actually know that. The most likely answer is either one of the Lords, namely Heisenberg, or Mother Miranda herself. Why either of them would do that is beyond me."
"Wait a minute… The group that made the thing that infected me, Eveline, I remember hearing that while they had many anonymous benefactors, only one person actually supplied them with the mold. They never told us who, or why. Not even Mia knew, and she was Eveline's handler." A moment later, Ethan's eyes widened. "Oh shit…"
"What is it?" Alcina asked.
"In the aftermath… Mia said something about another researcher providing the initial materials."
"Damn. It was Mother Miranda then."
"What reason did she have to send them that shit? Why does she want control over a major bio-weapon? Does she want to expand her control or something?"
"No. I may not know that woman intimately, but she is most certainly not a war-monger. She truly couldn't care less about that." Alcina waved the accusation off.
"What the hell is the reason, then?" Ethan asked, leaning against the wall and burying his face into his hands, sighing.
"We are missing some pieces to this puzzle, Ethan. Keep working. We've already made a good deal of progress. Keep it up." Alcina said, before returning to her work.
Ethan nodded and silently left the room. He was exhausted. Not only was he stuck in some fucked up Romanian castle with his daughter held hostage and wife dead, but he now learned that the main bitch in charge was also responsible for that shit down in Louisianna. "Fuck me, this shit doesn't stop!"
The next day comes quickly, sooner than Ethan realizes as he had fallen asleep at his desk. He quickly sits up, but a zap of pain shoots up his back. "Fuck!" He gasps, clutching his back. "I'm not even that old!" Struggling to breathe, he stands up and works his back loose. "What the fuck is this mold good for, if I still wake up with a tense back?" Working the knots from sleeping in a chair, he walked around his room. Stretching a bit releases the tension, and he feels the pain rapidly subside. The mold was working his muscles back into good health and he sighed in relief.
"What time even is it?" Grabbing the watch, he read the face of it. "11:13. Damn. Must've stayed up too late." Ethan undressed himself and headed to the bathroom. He decided to have a nice bath to help wake him up. As he slipped in, he heard his door up. He thumped his head against the tub and groaned quietly.
"Ethan?" He heard a woman's voice call out for him- in fact, he was sure that was Magda.
"I'm in the bath!" He yelled in reply. "Need something?"
"I noticed you weren't at breakfast, and I hadn't seen you all day. I was just worried is all." Her voice came through the door.
Ethan laughed a bit. "Nah, I'm fine. Just over-slept is all. Surprised I was able to, honestly. Someone usually busts my door down earlier. If anyone should be worried, it's me. You're late."
"Har har, whatever. Some of us actually have to work in this damn castle."
"Hey! I do… stuff."
"Like what? Do you clean the carpets? The walls? Cook food? Take care of the linens?"
"I- uh… no." Ethan relented. He could feel her smirk.
"Exactly."
"Moving on. What're you up to?" Ethan asked as he lathered soap into his hair.
"Me? Nothing, currently. I'm on my lunch break, but I finished a bit early. Got about another 10 minutes before I have to get back to my duties. What about you?"
Ethan thought about that question for a moment. Cass hadn't sent for him for training or work. Bela or Dani hadn't visited either. He was still working on the mission Alcina gave him, but it wouldn't be solved in a day. Ethan shrugged to himself before answering, "Nothing. I'm sure eventually one of the Dimitrescu's will drag me off somewhere, but until that happens, nothing."
"Being dragged off by a Dimitrescu has different meanings to us." She laughed. "But either way, I'm glad it's you rather than me. I'll see you later."
"Bye!" Ethan said before slinking down in the tub and lathered his skin. He was actually trying to get washed rather quickly, because he wasn't joking that he was sure one of the daughters would burst into his room soon. It was a rather common occurrence. The mystery was 'who', and the next was 'why'.
Walking out of the bathroom fully clothed and mostly dry, Ethan began hiding away all the things he was looking at, in case someone came snooping by. Luckily, he was justified. Bela opened the door and walked through, "Good day, Ethan."
"Bela. What're you up to?" He asked, curious as to why she was visiting.
The tall woman looked around his room for a bit before answering. "I had a spare moment and I was already in this wing, so I decided to check up on you. I honestly expected you to be occupied by one of my sisters, to be truthful."
"Yeah, I expected that myself, but neither of them has been here. It's… quiet. I hate it." Ethan said, putting his watch back on his wrist. "I was going to wait around for a minute before finding something to do."
"What did you have in mind?" Bela asked, idly picking objects up from the desk and inspecting them.
Ethan shrugged while making his bed. "Maybe I'll go talk to Duke for a minute. See if he has anything interesting for sale."
"Duke is not in today. Had something pop up, told Alcina that he would be absent for the day."
Ethan stopped his task and looked over his shoulder, "Really? Wonder what happened for him to personally be involved."
"Who knows? That man is… odd." Bela said, staring off into nothing while she spoke.
"How is he odd?" Ethan asked, actually interested.
Thinking for a moment, Bela started explaining. "None of us actually ever see him move. He kind of…"
"Appears?" Ethan finished her sentence for her.
"Exactly. He seems to have endless connections and knowledge about things he most certainly should not have. Mother Miranda despises him."
"She does? Isn't Duke worried she might hurt him or something?" Ethan asked.
Bela shook her head, "No. In fact, she has made a few attempts to remove him, but they all failed. He always seems to be one step further than anyone. It's rather frightening. However, he's never actually given anyone else to despise him. He is cordial with pretty much everyone."
"Does Miranda punish those that deal with him?"
"At first she did, but not anymore." Bela set down an object before walking around the room some more. "She used to execute anyone in the village that dealt with him, but he became the only merchant that would sell in this area, much to her anger. Now she turns a blind eye to it." Bela smirked a little, "I've even heard that Mother Miranda has had to swallow her pride a few times and deal with him, but I've never confirmed that."
"Maybe I can ask Duke when he returns." Ethan chuckled. "I'm sure he'd get a kick out of it, either way. Say, Bela… how do you think he moves?" Ethan asked, curiosity overtaking him.
"Not to insult the man but… I believe we would notice him walking around. Perhaps the mold somehow allows him to maneuver silently." Bela grabbed Ethan's wrist and looked at the watch. "Ah, I have to get going. I only had a few minutes to talk. Have a good day, Ethan. Try to stay out of trouble."
"You too, Bela, except please don't cause any trouble."
Bela huffed humorously, "Please, don't confuse me for my sisters." With that, she left the room.
Ethan shook his head, "It's like she forgets she was a moment away from eating me."
After organizing his items after Bela scattered them across his desk, Ethan walked out of his room. The air around the castle felt oddly… cool. It wasn't cold, but it felt cooler than what it normally was. Curious about it, he decided to go investigate. He had no idea where to even start, so he decided to check around for Alcina and see if she was busy. Approaching the door to her room, he knocked, but there was no reply. He knocked again, and nothing. Figuring she wasn't in, he went elsewhere.
It took him a moment, but he found a maid that could at least understand English. He had asked her where she was, but the maid didn't know. He asked why the castle felt colder, but she couldn't string together an answer with their slim English vocab. Thanking her anyway, he moved on. Finally, after enough searching, he caught a glimpse of the giant hat going around a corner. Walking down the hall, he heard her voice, and she did not sound happy, at all…
"What the hell do you mean it'll take you a couple hours to fix!? The temperature is already dropping rapidly! I had to confine my girls to their rooms for the time being so that their fires could keep them warm!"
Whoever she was yelling at wasn't replying. Probably some poor repair guy or a maid. Maybe a repair maid? Did they have those? Now that Ethan thought about it, who the hell did the major repairs around the castle? Some stuff you can teach a maid to do, yeah, but theres a lot that requires a few years of constant work to get proficient at.
"Stop ignoring me!" Alcina roared. "You are acting like a child!"
Ethan snickered at that. Whoever it was, Alcina wasn't going to just kill them, so they weren't afraid of pressing her buttons.
As Ethan approached, Alcina noticed him and did a double take. It looked like she was trying to silently shoo him away, and quickly, but it was too late. The moment Ethan fully stepped around the corner, he knew exactly who she was talking to. Who the mystery person was that Alcina was angry with, but not killing. Exactly who she called a child…
"Oh, Ethan Winters. What. A. Surprise."
"Heisenberg." Ethan whispered.
Heisenberg gave a twisted smile, taking off his sunglasses and pointing them at Ethan. "So this is where you ran off to. We have a game to finish!"
"Not. In. My. Castle!" Alcina hissed, claws slowly extending from her fingers.
"The super-sized bitch is protecting her daughter's plaything?" Heisenberg taunted, getting in her face as best he could. Alcina's face twitched just a tad bit more than normal, something which Heisenberg noticed.
"He is not my daughter's plaything, you child! He is here as a guest-!" Instantly, both Alcina and Ethan knew she should not have said that. Heisenberg backed up, a chuckle escaping his lips.
"A manthing as a guest? In your castle? Tell me, what does Mother Miranda think of this?" Heisenberg asked.
Alcina hesitated to answer for a moment, "She is not concerned with the details, so only wishes for me to hold him here, for now."
"The great Alcina Dimitrescu is getting soft! Oh, how adorable! I'm sure the other Lords will just love this!"
"I will slice you in two!"
Heisenberg began to laugh at Alcina, "Protective too!? How sweet."
"Shut the hell up!" Ethan interjected, trying to help Alcina. "She's just doing what Miranda told her to do."
"I don't remember asking you." Heisenberg snarled. "Do be a good pet, and sit by your master." He smirked as he gestured to Alcina.
A cracking right hook stumbled Heisenberg. He staggered back, clutching his jaw. Both stunned Lords looked towards Ethan Winters, still post-punch stance. "I ain't a fucking pet!"
"That. Hurt." Heisenberg seethed with rage. "You wanna fucking go? Let's fucking go!" Alcina tried to stop the two, but the men just sidestepped her. Heisenberg went for a wide right hook, but Ethan ducked it, grabbing the back of the trench coat and driving his knee into the man's rib cage repeatedly. Each strike knocked the wind from the male Lord. Finally, he threw the man down the hall a couple of feet.
Staggering up, Heisenberg began to laugh. "Someone can pack punch, but can he take it one is the real question." Heisenberg just began to walk back towards Ethan. However, this time Heisenberg was the one to dodge a punch, and drove his own into Ethan's face. Ethan had to give it to the man, he hit like a fucking freight train. Ethan staggered back, pain overloading his brain.
"Fuck!" He cried, clutching a broken cheekbone. The bones immediately began to knit together.
"Interesting. You're more resilient than I last remember." Heisenberg stated in honest surprise. "You get a little 'gift' during your stay here?" He asked.
Ethan half-raised his hands in a fighting stance, "I got a present for you, and I know right where to shove it."
"Let's see you try."
The two ran at each other, closing the short distance in just a moment. Heisenberg threw a right hook, but Ethan simply threw up a guard and stopped it. He countered with two quick, right jabs to the face. While the punches did damage, it wasn't enough to keep Heisenberg from jamming his fist into Ethan's ribs, breaking a few, and maybe popping an organ.
Sucking in from the pain, Ethan was too distracted to keep from Heisenberg grappling him and throwing him into the nearest wall, crushing it in. Ethan shook the stars from his head just in time to see Heisenberg reaching for him. Reacting, Ethan kicked the Lord in the chest as hard as he could muster. The man flew back and landed on his back, making a strange noise as the wind left his lungs.
Pulling himself out, Ethan was hoping the mold would quickly come out. He was sure that he could take the man quickly if it manifested, but that was if. Otherwise, he could probably only just survive.
"Alright, fuck this!" Heisenberg yelled in rage. He held out his hands, and everyone began to hear rattling from inside the walls, and every metal fixture around them looked like they were trying to rip itself off the walls.
Alcina came over and grabbed Heisenberg by his shirt, "You will NOT destroy my castle, Heisenberg! If you are so keen on fighting, you will do so with your fists only!" She demanded, and the look in her said 'Try me, fucker.'
"Fine! Don't get your giant panties in a twist!" The rattling then stopped. "I'll fuck him up the old fashion way!"
Ethan decided that now was the time to strike and he did. He delivered an awkward overhead haymaker right down onto Heisenberg's neck, and the man immediately seized up for a moment. He grabbed an arm and executed some judo throw that Chris taught him, and had Heisenberg on the ground. He quickly kneed the captured arm, breaking it at the elbow. Deciding that wasn't enough, Ethan stopped on the man's head. He hoped that it would at least knock him silly for a minute.
The floor beneath the man's head cracked, but he seemed to survive the hit. Letting go, Ethan backed up to asses Heisenberg. His arm was bent in a way that it shouldn't and there was a small trickle of blood on his head, but other than that he looked fine.
"God damn, kid! I gotta hand it to you, you got some power." Getting up, Heisenberg wrenched his arm back and it almost instantly healed. The trickle of blood also stopped short, the cut having sealed. "But you don't have enough."
"Fuck." Ethan whispered. Before he was ready, Heisenberg closed the distance faster than Ethan could comprehend and felt a fist dig into his gut. He doubled over, but Heisenberg quickly grabbed him by the back of his jacket and threw him down on it. Ethan tried to get up, but Heisenberg placed his foot over Ethan's throat and began to apply pressure.
"Nice try, kid. Better lucky next time!" He laughed, increasing the pressure until Ethan was unable to breathe.
"Do not kill him, Heisenberg." Alcina warned. "Alcina wants him alive."
"I won't kill him. I'm just teaching your pet a little lesson is all!" Heisenberg laughed curely.
Ethan was getting pissed at being called a pet. Ethan tried pushing, pulling, and punching the man's leg, but nothing was working and he was slowly going out. He gripped the ankle that was crushing him, tried to raise it with all his might, and let out a roar during it.
"What the fuck?" Heisenberg muttered in surprise as he felt Ethan fight back with growing force.
Alcina pinched the bridge of her nose. "Damn it… here we go."
Ethan's eyes opened to show blackness, and with another roar, the foot began to lift off. Ethan violently increased his grip strength, crushing the bone with his bare hand. Heisenberg quickly stopped his attack to allow the ankle to heal.
"Damn it all to hell, Alcina! What the fuck did you do to him!?" Heisenberg yelled.
Alcina rolled her eyes before narrowing them at a rising Ethan. "Nothing… that's all him."
Ethan popped his neck before settling back into a boxer's stance, blackness filling his veins. "It seems like I can take a punch, Heisenberg. Now let's see if you can."
"Heh. I'll play ball." Heisenberg said, now very interested. The man ditched his trench coat and rolled up the sleeves to undershirt. He also settled into a fighting stance to match Ethan.
Instead of rushing at one another, the duo slowly inched closer and closer until-
CRACK!
Heisenberg saw the punch coming and got into his guard. The punch completely shattered Heisenberg's left forearm. "Shit!" the man exclaimed, trying to protect himself from more strikes. Ethan decided to hang back, and give Heisenberg a moment to heal. He wasn't sure why but it just felt right.
A second later, Heisenberg was back to 100% and threw his own. It just barely slipped Ethan's guard and clipped his cheekbone. It didn't break this time, but it still jarred Ethan. Heisenberg took advantage and gave another, this time it landed on his face and broke his nose. Stumbling back and hissing, Ethan raised his guard.
To his surprise, Heisenberg didn't close on him. Instead, he just constantly bounced on his heels waiting for Ethan. Quickly, Ethan used the moment to set his nose and it healed quickly.
Ethan began approaching again, but quickly feinted for his opponent's face. When Heisenberg closed his guard high up, Ethan struck downwards, straight at the lower body. Heisenberg tried to react, but he was too slow. The air was forced from Heisenberg's lungs again. Now that his guard was lowered and he staggered, Ethan gave a quick right-left jab, and gave a mighty right hook that could've cracked a mountain. The third strike couldn't have landed more perfectly, right on the sweet spot of the jaw, where it turned up to connect to the skull. Heisenberg dropped to the ground, clutching a broken jaw. Ethan backed up and gave the man some space.
Heisenberg was on a knee for a moment, seeing stars and feeling the pain. Heisenberg would never admit it, but how he stayed conscious was a mystery. Heisenberg spit out a tooth and got onto his feet once more. "That was a hell of a punch."
"That's the goal."
"What the hell are you two doing!?"
The two fighters stopped and looked over, confused. They were both shocked to see Bela, Cass, and Dani there. The sister who yelled was Dani. She was ahead of the other two, and looked horrified. "Mother! Why are you letting them beat each other to death!"
"Why are you out of your rooms!?" Alcina said, just as angry as her daughter. "Do you have any idea how much you risk just being in the cool air!? Your swarm will go semi-dormant and you will become vulnerable!"
"Well, it's kind of hard not to investigate when it sounds like two elephants are stomping around." Cass stated.
Bela agreed, "We were afraid that there was a fight, which apparently we were right in assuming." Bela gestured to the two men and the damage around them.
Heisenberg and Ethan had since dropped their stances and looked around at the women. All their eyes were now on them.
"...what, he started it." Ethan said, pointing to Heisenberg. Alcina groaned and facepalmed.
"Oh my god…" she muttered. "You did not just… Never mind that!" Alcina yelled. "I will find maids to clean this up. You three; rooms, now!" She commanded.
Cass and Bela both nodded and left, but Dani stayed back for a moment. "Be nice, Heis! Ethan is a friend of ours." She scolded the man, to which he just raised his hands in defense.
"I'll be nice, promise." He said, bewildered and taking a glance at Ethan.
She looked between the two, skeptically, then left.
Heisenberg turned around to look at Alcina, then to Ethan, before pointing to where Dani was and said, "...what the fuck was that?".
"That…" Alcina said dropping her head in exhaustion, "Is a long story. Just… try not to kill each other. I need to go find a maid to fix this. And fix that damn thing, Heisenberg!" Alcina called before walking off.
"Yeah yeah yeah… super-sized pain in my ass."
Ethan kind of looked around, mold receded, and scratched the back of his head. "What… do you need to fix?"
"The furnace." Heisenberg answered, easily, picking up his hat and coat. "Damn thing is busted, if you couldn't tell." He said, emphasizing by blowing out air from his lungs and seeing his breath. "Normally I'd tell that Alcina to shove it up her ass… but I have a soft spot for those daughters of hers. Seeing as I'm the only mechanically inclined person close to this shitty castle, goes who gets to repair it? Me. What do I get in return? 'Fuck you, have a nice day'."
"Why do you two hate each other?"
"Because having a dick is some crime in this castle, apparently. That and I can't stand that high-n-mighty bitch. She's so far up Mother Miranda's ass she can see her fucking teeth."
Ethan had to suppress a chuckle, knowing how Alcina truly felt.
"So it's very much personal between you and Alcina."
"Yeah it is- wait, she lets you call her by her name?" Heisenberg asked.
"Yeah, some weird nobility bullshit she says."
"Nobility my left nut. There ain't nothing noble about her."
At that, Ethan had to laugh. It had been some time since he'd had a conversation like this.
"Come on, since I can't kill you or knock you out, I'll use it as an extra pair of hands for this fucking furnace." Heisenberg said, dusting off his coat and putting it on.
Ethan shrugged before following.
"Can you- can you hold that fucking light still!?" Heisenberg yelled from under a giant furnace, halfway buried in the machine.
"I don't even know where the fuck to point this thing! This is a fucking furnace?" Ethan asked in disbelief, looking at the mass of pipes, valves, and other random stuff.
"Made it myself. It's closer to a boiler but- potato, tomato. Less talking, more holding the light still!"
"You remind me of my dad."
"I'm not going to call you son."
"Fuck off."
"You can fuck off with that light, since your both pretty useless right now."
"I'll shove this light somewhere…"
"I don't care what you shove up your ass on your own time, but right now I need that."
"Now I know why Alcina hates you."
Heisenberg slid out from the machine and looked at Ethan, "Why the fuck are you even here? Last I checked, Mother Miranda wanted you dead."
"Fuck if I know. She just said I might be important later."
"Hm…" Heisenberg said, getting lost in thought. "Things must be worse than what she's telling us…" Heisenberg muttered and slid back under.
Confused, Ethan tried to climb under the furnace to speak with the man. "Wait, what? What did you say?"
"Nothing. Forget I said it."
"No, tell me. It concerns me and my daughter."
"...fine. Right now, Mother Miranda is telling us that the 'ceremony' needs more prep time, whatever the fuck that means. She's only giving us tidbits. She needs more prep time, but also that Chris Redfield is fucking shit out for us. Her rescinding the order for your death and even allowing you to stay here makes me think that maybe the ceremony doesn't need more prep time, and maybe it fucking failed."
"What is the ceremony? I've asked around about it, but Alcina doesn't even know."
"I don't either, kid. If Alcina don't know, I sure as shit don't. Bitchy white giant is Miranda's right-hand cunt."
"Don't let her hear you say that, she might actually kill you." Ethan laughed.
"She might but-" a loud clank was heard as Heisenberg fiddled with something, "-no one would fix her shit for her when it broke."
A metallic snap resounded through the room and Heisenberg was now holding a broken-off copper pipe segment.
Ethan shined the light on it for a moment before asking, "...what the hell is that?"
"Oh, it's just for… you know, this loop here. It's there to help transfer-"
"You have no idea."
"I have no fucking clue, no."
"Piece of shit!" Heisenberg was starting to get angry and started banging on the pipes with a hammer in rage. "I built a fucking factory with my bare hands- literally! And I can't fix this shit!?"
"What the hell were you on when you made it?"
"I was hoping I'd never have to come back, so I never drew up any plans for it. I built it and immediately forgot."
"That bit you in the ass, didn't it." Ethan laughed.
"Shut the fuck up!" He yelled, starting to lose his mind. "This shit makes no sense!"
Ethan couldn't help but laugh, and needed to excuse himself from under the machine. All he could see now was the legs of a now rambling and cussing Heisenberg, banging on the machine and rattling pipes.
"Fuck it! I'll deal with it more tomorrow!" He threw himself out from under the furnace, throwing a tool across the room. "Tell that bitch I'll be back!" Heisenberg snatched up his coat and stormed out of the maintenance room. Ethan couldn't help but laugh as he climbed the steps and closed the door behind him.
Looking at his hands and arms, he was caked in dirt, grime, and oil. He decided to take another bath but was ambushed by Magda on the way there.
"Damn, you are filthy!" The woman said. "What the hell did you get into!?"
"Well, Heisenberg was here and me and him fought-"
"Lord Heisenberg!?" Magda said in disbelief. "He was here? You fought him!?"
"Yeah yeah, easy now. Don't have a heart attack. It was fine. I'm helping him fix the furnace, but he decided to call it a day for now and come back tomorrow."
"My god, you silly man… next you're going to tell me you're going to fist fight Mother Miranda. Anyway, I was coming to ask you something…"
"Yeah?"
"What're you doing later tonight?"
"I'm gonna let Alcina know that we couldn't fix the furnace, and Heisenberg will be back. Then I need to wash this crap off me but after that? Nothing. Why?"
"I was wondering…" Magda stuttered and paused. "I was wondering um…"
"You were wondering…?"
"I was wondering if you'd like to get something to eat. Like dinner. Together." Magda finished with a blush.
"Normally I'd say yes right away, but something is telling me you don't mean just dinner in the canteen with other maids…?" He asked hesitantly.
"I don't… I mean like. A dinner… date."
It's been 4 long months. Yikes. Seeing a comment saying "I bet the next chapter releases Halloween" made me wince a bit.
I will be honest, this chapter could've come sooner. I was extremely unmotivated to write *this* specific story. I even wrote one-off things just for myself, but yet didn't touch this. Sorry about that. There were 100% things that were unavoidable that came up, though. Doctor visits, tests, family things.
Some news! My lil baby boy is due around February 14th, and we are naming him 'Mason'. Now that I'm writing this, I just fucking realized the irony of my baby being born in early February...
But my girlfriend and I have pretty much everything we need. In her words, "he can pop out anytime and we'd be good".
Now. In that time I was writing one-off things (none of which are going to be published, sorry), I did experiment with which character(s) to romance in this story... and I picked which to go for! But that's a reveal for a later chapter. I wanted to get this chapter out as a Christmas present to anyone who was still waiting. I will be putting a temporary pin in the whole 'writing schedule' thing for now, and write when I can. Since I got this bad boy out (with a whole extra 3k words), I may start writing more!
No promises.
Thanks for reading.