Innerworks

65. To be found

"You Ericsson, will be a man of many things, whether great or terrible; such is the fate of men with eyes and minds as yours. Watch yourself boy and mind your tongue, lest you lose it."

Mr. Markarson, had said that to him the first day he had found him at age 5. The old man was full of it, but he was one of the few slaves that would take an orphaned child as his own. Now he didn't really have much of a choice on who to go live with but he could have been in worse care.

Still, things were never the same when the Oldman became Steward for the new Duke and Duchess of the Second Kingdom. Two years, he spent as a Steward in training with Mr. Markarson, and then the oldman died in a Dragon's fire.

The Duchess decided to pity him and raise him alongside her sons.

Then she died too, of an illness no one knew how to treat.

The Duke, per his wife's final request, still raised the children as siblings, trained them to take his place and then he all but abandoned all three of his 'sons' by later taking his own life.

He had always surpassed the expectations of the late Duke, and should the eldest son not want the title, then it was to go to the youngest, to him- except...

It didn't.

The Eldest became Rose and thus could not take the title of Duke. Right then and there, he should have been given the title but no, it went to Charles; the only one among them who did not care for the title at all. The one who ruined and squandered everything he had worked for.

He left, determined to start anew.

Brought into the Kingdom by that wealthy Old Farmer, under the title of Steward, he worked for three years. Then with the lonely Craftsman, where he had his first taste of machinery. It was then, that he began to formulate his plan.

A Dream Machine would be sure to impress Prince Roman and Duke Remus.

The plan was only a tad soured by the fact that the new Aspect of Sleep was formed while his plans were still in their blue-printing phase; however the Aspect seemed to have quite a bit on his resume. If he were to make friends with the Guardian, Sleep would let him handle dreams while he tended to his other multitude of duties as protector of the subconscious.

He later found that the Twins had a disagreement and had separated their power. Main Kingdom became known as the Prime Kingdom and it was split in two. The Dream Tower in the center of it all.

Thankfully it seemed as though both brothers had good standing with Sleep, who was now given the title of Marquess, which meant that if he were to make friends with Aspect he was a shoe in for a recommendation of- no promotion to- a higher title than Steward.

But first he had to get his Blue prints done and a prototype built, only then would he attempt to befriend the Aspect of Sleep.

By the time he had gotten his first prototype to exist, the Guardian of the Subconscious was already firmly established and the Dream Tower looked more magnificent and technologically advanced than it ever had. Frowning, He looked upon his pitiful machine that he pulled in his beaten up red wagon.

No, that would not do.

Biting his tongue and holding his pride, he carried the prototype home.

He'd come by again another time when the Machine was bigger and better and guaranteed to impress the Aspect he had yet to meet.

He worked to make the machine larger and far reaching...