Chapter 19: Order Day
Iris had no idea how the girls who liked other maidens got anything done whilst in the castle.
It had been several weeks since Iris had lost her virginity, since then she had maintained an enthusiastic interest in the activity in sex. Something her boss was more than happy to fuel. They had ventured away from the bedroom, to the showers, his desk and even once in a freshly cleaned examination suite after receiving a whopping five bodies, all tall muscular men, from a Lycan attack on what seemed to be a camping trip or some sort.
The very same day, they had a family meeting. Something that had been announced via a surprise call from Miranda."If my children cannot come together for discussion without my supervision then none of you deserve the title of Lord" she'd snapped at Karl, who when told about the meeting, had immediately argued against seeing his "siblings" again, emboldened by her lack of presence in the village.
Dimitrescu had glowered at Iris the entire time, her face pinched as if she could smell something awful. She'd sharply scolded her for giving up her precious maidenhood to a rabid dog like Heisenberg, and how even a Lycan would have been better. Karl had thrown some choice words at that and the imminent fight had only calmed after Dimitrescu's ire was focused on Moreau, who had sobbed at the two to not fight, getting mucus-coated hands over her pristine white dress.
She'd raged and thrown a pew at an already crumbling wall. They'd left quickly after, both out of anger and fear that the building would finally give up and cave in on itself.
Iris chuckled at the thought, sipping her coffee on her little garden chair. It was spring now, the bite of winter quickly becoming a distant memory. It was a good day today. Order day, where Duke graced Factory Heisenberg with his jovial presence to provide cigars, alcohol and other well needed supplies for that month.
They were never truly certain when the man would arrive, he'd just appear out of nowhere in the lift, as if he was always a part of the building. Iris had a hauler stationed at every level of the floor, and Karl kept a closer eye on the CCTV but they could never pinpoint the exact time he arrived, nor how he did so. The technology would blur or completely shut down for a moment, the haulers would react to nothing, as if the Duke passed by them as a ghost.
They'd spent many hours debating, Iris had begged for information from him, but the mystery of the Duke was likely one that would remain forever.
"Camera 4A just glitched get your ass in here" Karls eager voice crackled over the speakers, Iris jumped like she was electrocuted.
Order day was always a great day.
Heisenberg beat her to the lift, his booming voice echoing down the metal halls, Duke's own rich voice responding with jovial laughter and pleasantries. Iris found herself grinning madly as she entered the warm glow of his pop up shop in the lift.
"Miss Iris, beautiful as ever!"
"And Duke, lovely as ever! Any good stuff up for offer?"
He puffed his cigar, a choking belch and a wide, brilliant white smile.
"Oh you have no idea"
With some flare, a large arm presented a black rectangle, Duke beaming with smug pride.
"What do you think?"
She had a feeling that she knew what it was, deep down, but stood in front of the expectant eyes of Duke and Boss, she was uncertain.
"... A machine?"
"A Laptop my dear, procured under, well I admit unsavoury circumstances, perfectly intact, the previous owner even unlocked the thing for us, how lovely of him hm?"
"Where is the owner now?"
Duke didn't respond, but Iris felt a small pressure of power from the being. Not quite like the Lords, or her Haulers or Soldats. But there was definitely something up with this man. Although honestly, it didn't take powers to know that.
"How much?" Karl's arms were folded, glasses hiding desperate eyes, any glimpse of the outside world, any scrap of information, was worth more than anything they had in the factory. Hell, for this he'd probably give away Sturm.
Not that she'd let him, she'd gotten attached to the big lump.
"Nothing material if that's what you're worrying about Lord Heisenberg, why I believe the perfect payment for such a prize, such knowledge, is an exchange of information." Beady eyes turned to Violet, "My dear, I would love to hear how your powers are growing, you see I am a man of many talents, with fingers in many pies, but I do have my blind spots. And you my dear, being holed up in this factory all the time, you're a blind spot. I'd love to correct that."
Iris blinked in shock, that was it? Just talk about herself?
"C-can I discuss this with my boss first?"
"Of course"
She grabbed at Heisenberg's arm, shuffling out of the lift and slamming the "close door" button, whispering frantically.
"Can we trust him? Truly?" Karl grimaced, they'd had this conversation before and ended in a stalemate of "kind of".
"Doesn't matter, we need that laptop."
"Shut up you don't even know what a laptop is"
"I don't need to, somewhere in that empty cavern you call a skull is knowledge of the outside world. I bet if you got that laptop in your hands, you'd remember a whole lot more that song lyrics and cartoons"
"What if this is a trick?"
"Then we get tricked" Her boss straightened up, mouth set in a stern line, "We have to take every scrap we can get. So stop panicking, get back in there, and get me that laptop" He stalked away before she could answer, only turning to leave a final warning.
"You'll wish you'd died in that castle if you return without it"
Iris allowed herself a couple seconds to internally scream, curse her boss, vow to never let him near her ever again.
Fucking prick.
Tidy bun, smooth dress, open door.
"I'm ready."
Duke made a show of not knowing what happened, and was nice enough to not ask where Lord Heisenberg had gone.
"What would you like to know?"
Duke leaned forward, eagerness in water eyes, he always smelt like rich, spiced wine, smoke and cured meat.
"Everything."
That odd power fluctuated, wrapping around Iris, her own gift desperately trying to grasp hold of it but failing miserably. If she had a keener eye, she'd have seen Duke's smile widen.
"I um… well it's clear I have been infected. And… I have powers" She trailed off once again, too nervous to betray her boss, what if Duke was working for Miranda? What if he let something slip, surely if he served Dimitrescu, Heisenberg, all the Lords, he'd serve her too?
"What is troubling you my dear?"
"What do you think about Mother Miranda?" She trained her black eyes onto him, hoping the truth would read clear.
"Miranda has haunted this village for decades" Duke looked solemn, Iris didn't think he'd ever seen him not smile, "She'll never stop trying to undo nature's course, and going against nature only leads to destruction."
Iris pondered his wording, he must know about Eva then, and if he knew about Eva, he probably knew about the Megamycete.
"When I was being infected, I saw the megamycete, I think my power derives from it. Like Miranda's. I can sense others, who are infected. Can control them, kind of, well, I'm trying to. Heisenberg is helping me, but all I can do so far is stop a being from moving, sometimes push them away from me, about a couple metres…"
"Fascinating" He was smiling again, a wave of relief passed through Iris, she didn't realise how intimidating the gargantuan man was when you were not basking in his wares and pleasantries, "How far do your tracking abilities go currently?"
"Only from the confines of the factory" Iris huffed, "I think it's linked with my own knowledge of the area, if boss let me wander the village more I could probably detect from there too but…"
"I wouldn't recommend you leaving without your Lord my dear"
Iris sighed, this was a request that had been denied many a time before, "Yeah I know."
"And what, Miss Iris, do your powers say about me?" He leaned forward, staring deep into her eyes, maybe he could read her thoughts through them, see her power work.
She tried to figure him out once again, but all she got was some vague energy feedback, and a sharp stab in her brain warning future migraines if she kept up.
"I don't know, it's confusing. I know you're powerful, not fully human, but that's it."
Duke leaned back, a gleaming grin gracing his face.
"Excellent. Now, my dear I have procured an excellent array of clothing and even some oils for a fine young woman like yourself! At a discount too of course, only the best for my best customer"
Iris almost passed out from the relief
"That's it?"
"Of course! All knowledge is precious, no matter how fickle it may seem" His smile widened, body turning slightly to reveal a soft package of clothing that Iris was oddly drawn to. A lilac striped two piece that had a small card tied to them.
"Pyjamas"
Giddy Iris bought the extra items with the little lei she had to herself, near shaking with anticipation as Duke placed the laptop into her hands, dangling a black wire on top that Iris instinctively knew was its charger.
"Now unfortunately, Miranda's disdain for modern day life means that you won't be able to surf the internet as you please, but I assure you there's a plethora of information to keep you two occupied until I happen across some more interesting wares for you."
Another smile, "Bye bye now!" And Iris was dismissed, the lift doors shutting as if by magic. She had a feeling if she tried to open the doors again she'd be unable to, and if she checked the CCTV room, the lift would be entirely empty.
The mystery of Duke would have to wait however, beaming like a maniac, Iris walked as fast as possible back to the living quarters, clutching the laptop like it was pure gold.
She darted to the study, fizzing with anxious energy, completely ignoring her boss pretending to not be waiting for her, shoving his papers and schematics off the desk and shoving the laptop in place, stabbing at the power button.
"Good girl."
"Shut it."
The laptop whirred to life, requesting "guest" log in, but luckily there was no password in place. The desktop was almost entirely bare, with just a google chrome icon, google oh my god I remember google, and three folders.
"Umbrella - General"
"NEXBAS 2000 and future"
"1998 Incident- Media Coverage"
Iris instinctively clicked Umbrella, recognising something about the name but not being able to grasp exactly what.
To her fury, a password request appeared.
"Duke lied, it's not fully unlocked, I can't get into this folder"
Karl huffed from behind her, eyes soaking in every bit of the screen he could. She wondered if this was the first bit of "modern" technology he'd ever seen.
"Does Umbrella mean anything to you?"
"Rings a bell, but I don't know what. It's a company or something."
Karl noted it down in his notebook, a voice recorder and camera already set up in anticipation for whatever wonders they'd uncover.
She moved onto the next folder, "NEXBAS 2000 and future", which held various documents, some photos of men in lab coats, all white facilities full of machines and pods that reminded Iris of an alien spaceship, and a video of what appeared to be a celebratory speech by a man in a fancy suit on a stage.
The video was blurry, the audio quality poor, clearly being taken in secret but someone in the audience.
"Next generation experimental battlefield superiority initiative, or as we all know it 'NEXBAS" has been a highly successful collaboration between ourselves at The Connections and our partners over at Umbrella" The man beamed as a round of applause broke out, even from the video Iris thought he looked overly smug, slimey.
"Of course, special thanks goes to our donor, who chooses to remain anonymous and cannot make it here tonight for obvious reasons. Without their input and gifting of initial samples, none of our hard work could be made possible"
"Miranda" Heisenberg growled over another applause, "It's got to be"
"Now this year we've said hello to our newest line, the E-line, which will be debuted to investors next summer. We at The Connections are revolutionizing the bioweapons industry with our breakthrough advancement into mental and psychic weapons." The man raised a glass, flashing too white, too straight teeth. "And here tonight, we have a small snippet of our advert for you all to see."
The large screen behind him lit up with some modern logo and music that reminded Iris of an action movie trailer. The video depicted highly edited and stylised footage of what appeared to be a smiling young child, waving at the camera shyly, in an all-white room, empty bar herself and some dummies lined up on the wall. The audience awed and whooped at the scene. The child then stretches out a hand towards a white dummy across the room from her, an invisible force throwing it back into a crumpled heap. More footage showed a slightly older child levitating items and throwing them at targets, and materialising a black sticky mass from thin air. The sight made Iris's blood run cold.
"Karl-"
A hand grasped her own, "I know"
The footage ended with a cheesy quip about "the future" and the same logo. The man beaming at the crowd.
"Our nursery team has actually done some calculations tonight so we have yet another achievement under our belt! E-0001 has officially finished their rapid ageing programme and stabilised successfully. So! Tonight I would like an extra round of applause for all of you hard working people tonight and if I could raise a toast to The Connections, to Umbrella, and have us all say, Happy Tenth birthday to Eveline!"
The video ended, frozen on the man pretending to drink his stupid champagne.
Iris shut the laptop, an icy numbness washing over her. To her side, the voice recorder clicked off.
"Karl."
"You know I really thought I was her last" Iris turned to her boss, still glaring down at the laptop, eyes glassy. "I was four when she took me. Infected me. Ripped me open again and again to watch the electricity in my veins"
Iris gripped harder onto his hand, eyes wet.
"All of that, all of that pain, the loneliness, to end up being a dud anyways. Not worthy." He laughed bitterly, voice cracking, "I thought, I'd hoped that I was such a disappointment that she'd not bother to go after another kid again."
"Do you think she'll come back with her? Is that Eveline supposed to be her Eva?" Iris shook her head, the child's chubby fingers, their smile with missing teeth, their hair tied in little pigtails, she couldn't be taken here, not to this godforsaken place. "We need to save her"
"I think she was payment. Miranda wants her baby, not a child. I learnt that the hard way. I bet these psychos promised her Eva if she pawned off some Cadou samples"
Iris thought back to the last words Miranda shared with the Lords, her crazed desperation palpable.
Iris lay back in defeat, "What are we supposed to do? Why show us this? We're nowhere near ready, our supply is purely from dead villagers and wandering tourists, and now we find out that she's way more powerful, with whole companies of people trained in the megamycete, infecting kids with it, on her side?"
Iris thought back to Miranda's last meeting, her nervous excitement, bubbling up and breaking her cool demeanor, even in front of the lowly Lords. It was easy to imagine her giving everything and anything away to get a chance of getting Eva back.
It was even easier to imagine someone, like an all powerful bioweapons company, taking advantage of that.
"There's nothing we can do. Not right now. Not for who knows how long. All we know from this is that Miranda's way more powerful, with powerful friends. It's like he wants us to give up."
"Not give up, he's warning us" Her boss got up, pacing towards the portrait of Miranda that was propped up in his study, surrounded by matching portraits of all the Lords, all donning several piercings from thrown knives.
"Even when we kill that bitch. Even when we leave this godforsaken place… We won't be safe. With our powers… these people will be foaming at the mouth to get hold of us. The war doesn't stop when we leave this place Iris. It'll just be the beginning."
Sorry for any weird tone changes/attitude changes as this fic goes on, I think I'm struggling more to keep things the same because it's taking me so long to write. It was much easier keeping everything flowing with my GoT fic imo.