II. Gods and Monsters

"Damsel in Distress"

Charlotte's head jarred up as she finally regained consciousness. She felt like she had the mother of all hangovers as she tried to get her bearings. She was suspended off the ground by her wrists and her ankles were chained to the floor.

"Ah, you're finally awake," an unfamiliar voice spoke ahead of her.

A tall, dark-skinned man strode into view with a goblet in hand.

"You stay away from her!" She heard her dad yell to her left. He was in the exact same state as her except he had a large gash in his head. She assumed (correctly) it was from when he was flung into the car.

"Please calm yourself, it's water," the stranger told him in barely contained irritation as he showed him the contents of the cup. "You'd think that you would appreciate this more as I am the only thing keeping you and your daughter alive."

He turned to Charlotte, an amiable expression on his face.

"I would advise you to drink this as it will help with the headache."

He offered the goblet to her and after a second or two to consider, she gratefully drank. It was definitely just water.

Once she was done, the man turned and walked to the other side of the room, placing the cup on a heavy, wooden table. He wore leather armour which had metal studs running all the way up it and had a sword strapped to his belt. He was muscle-bound and had no hair upon his head. He looked like something out of Spartacus.

"Was it you that sent the other one?" She asked him.

"The other what my dear?" The man asked, absent-mindedly searching amongst the stone shelves towards the back of the equally stony room.

"The other flaming skeleton-thing." She replied as if it was obvious. She was acting a lot braver than she felt right now, but she was not going to sit here and play the damsel in distress. "This is the second time we've been attacked by one of those things and it's getting kinda boring."

"I'm afraid I haven't sent anything anywhere. I just look after the things my master asks me to look after, like his guests." The man replied, turning to face her again, book in hand. "But if you want answers I will answer as well as I can. For example, my master and I share no such connection with the monster that attacked your centre of authority. We aim to hunt and destroy it actually."

Charlotte looked at him suspiciously. He was being way too nice.

"What about the other one? Your master send that because he didn't want to get his own hands dirty?" Again, she was speaking with way more bark than she had bite. Inside she was scared shitless, despite the Spartacus reject's calm manner.

He chuckled at her response before replying; "No actually, that was my master. He wanted to bring you in personally so as to hopefully attract the right attention. Although I can understand why you would assume he would not come find you himself if you did not know him like I do."

"So what are you? Some kind of slave?" Her dad asked him, not even attempting to hide his aggression.

A pained expression flickered across the man's face, but only for a moment. Her dad had clearly hit a nerve.

"My days in forced servitude are behind me," the man told them, venom in his voice before he calmly carried on. "I aid my master willingly as a token of gratitude."

"Gratitude for what?" Charlotte asked, unable to control her curiosity while also trying to prevent her dad from pissing the man off any further.

"To put it simply, he saved my life and gave it meaning. However, I will not bore you with that story."

As the man sat in the chair in front of her, a glint in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Just in the doorway to the room, scurrying up the archway, was a small, silver object. She couldn't see it properly, but it looked small enough to be some form of bug.  As she watched it, it sprouted small, translucent wings from its back and took off. 'Spartacus' was too engrossed in his book to notice the little thing float right above his head and towards her. As it came closer she realised that it was actually some kind of robot! Instead of a face, it had a little lens strapped to the front of its tiny metal body. It had six little legs and long, plasticky wings. As it came even closer she noticed it was pulsing. Underneath its metal skin, the circuitry seemed to glow as each pulse went through it. It was beautiful... mesmerising even. The lens never left her as it whirred onto her right arm. Charlotte quickly peeked at the stranger in the chair. He still hadn't noticed the little guy. As Charlotte turned back to the mini-bot, she noticed it had made its way up her arm until it got to the shackle. It stopped on the bolt holding the restraint closed and Charlotte saw that it was loose. Looser than it should be anyway. She gave the robot a suspicious look as it tilted its lens-head to one side as if expecting something.

"Excuse me," Charlotte called to the man in the chair, "What's your name?"

The robo-bug scurried around the back of her arm to hide from him as he looked up.

"Oh how rude of me, I do apologise. My name is Amadeus, my dear. How may I be of help?" He gave a short bow.

"I don't mean to be rude, but have you treated my dad's head yet?" Charlotte asked in the most innocent voice she could muster.

"I certainly tried to. Unfortunately, your father was not too willing to comply and attempted to bite me every time I went near him." Amadeus told her sympathetically, while also shooting her dad a dirty look.

"And I'll do it again if you come anywhere near me..." Andrew threatened him.

"Good old dad, knows just how to be awkward..." Charlotte thought to herself before asking Amadeus; "If I got my dad to not bite you, would you mind sorting it out? I'm worried it might get infected or something..."

"If your father can restrain himself from spitting insults at me and attempting to remove my fingers, I would happily do so," Amadeus assured her with a small smile. Even though he was holding her here against her will, Charlotte couldn't help but like him. He seemed to genuinely care.

"Dad, please don't attack him, he's trying to be nice," Charlotte pleaded with her dad, who seemed to understand what was going on. Vaguely.

"... Alright, sweetie... But just for your peace of mind," he told her.

"Excellent!" Amadeus sighed, clearly relieved. "I shall fetch my equipment and have you cleaned up in no time!"

The manservant rushed from the room in search of his medical equipment. Meanwhile, Charlotte started to fidget. The bolt was behind her wrist, so it would take some manoeuvring to work it loose.

"Thank you," she whispered to the little insect-thing. It chirped happily in response before whirring away.

"Nobody chains baby in a corner..." Charlotte muttered to herself as she started to try and worm the bolt free...