He Was Almost Absorbed By The System - Part Two

Chapter One Hundred And Seventy Two - Dabbling In Clockworks

"Blast it!  Mr Forbes, did you happen to see where the kite went?"

Wilfred Forbes had been the butler of the Stoker household for nearly seventeen years.  He was first in the employ of Conroy Stoker, who politely asked him to watch over his son once the boy took over his businesses and struck out on his own.  Although he had witnessed the boy grow up, Wilfred privately admitted that he never had much of an impression about him, with the exception of his appetite for food and drink.  He secretly thought that his master and mistress had indulged the boy too much, growing up, but perhaps this was expected.  The Stokers had only one son, having lost another not long after birth and Mrs Stoker struggling to carry to term until young Lucian was finally born. Lucian, therefore, was expected to fulfil all of their dreams for the family's future.

No matter what Wilfred felt of the young Master's pastimes, he would be the first to admit that the boy was exceptionally intelligent, if a little cut throat when it came to business. And so, when his former Master asked him to watch over his son's household, Wilfred did not refuse. He supervised the running of the house with efficiency and care and once the bride was introduced, he looked forward to the future. He had no children of his own, so would have no grandchildren, but felt he would enjoy seeing little ones within the house.

Sadly, it was not to be. Miss Estelle had embarrassed the Stokers and her own family by fleeing the bedchamber upon the wedding night.

From then on, his young Master appeared changed, subdued in someways and more eccentric in others. He no longer over indulged in food nor wine, his ways in business had become more refined and less bloody and he seemed to have taken an interest in developing strange contraptions. He ducked as one such device suddenly soared over his head, nearly taking one of the few hairs remaining upon it with it.

Wilfred Forbes narrowed his eyes as he stared after the mechanism, which loosely resembled a hawk for all its brass feathers and claws.

"Blast it!" Came the voice of the Master from within the room he had coined his workshop. "Mr Forbes, did you happen to see where the kite went?" The face of his young Master appeared from the doorway. It was not as round as it had been a few months ago, though there was still a softness to it. It gave him a boyish, immature look. And the tiny eyes, once hidden by mounds of flesh, now seemed large and astonishingly bright. Wilfred had been startled to note that they were a very pale blue in colour. However at the moment, they were covered in a thick pair of goggles that had been altered to have many smaller lenses as attachments.

"It flew towards the parlour, young Master," Wilfred informed him. "I have this morning's newspaper. Do you wish to read it here?"

The young Master nodded decisively. "And could you have someone bring me some breakfast, please," he asked. "I'll deal with the kite later."

"Very good, sir," Wilfred replied and placed the newspaper down upon the table and went to do his bidding.

Kyan watched the older man leave, before grabbing the paper and scanning through its pages. The paper reported that the Crown Prince had visited a city in the North of the country of late and Mr Wallis was advertising three thoroughbred horses, a colt ready to be broken in and two older mares, which would be a fine buy for a young lady. A drought was expected in the south east and it was speculated that the price of flour would rise due to this. Kyan sighed and folded up the paper, before placing it to one side.

"Notice that nothing seems to be amiss again," he said aloud as he picked up one of his tools and adjusted the screw in the contraption before him.

*Yin feels that this is on purpose.*

"Yin would likely be correct," Kyan mused. "If the corruption is as brutal as we believed, then it is unlikely that something would not be noticed. I feel like we are missing something."

*Nothing has been discovered from personal observation either.*

Their morning and now evening walks, which helped Kyan's weight loss, were also a great way to check out their surroundings. But so far, they had not discovered anything out of the ordinary, unless you counted the mixed technology. Kyan did not. He had already disassembled several mechanisms and found nothing malicious about their workings. They ranged from simple to complicated, nothing that he could not handle, of course, but had nothing to actually hide. The enjoyment he received from toying with the gadgets reminded him of a few lifetimes and he ended up attempting to use this world's technology to create a few things of his own.

The kite was just one, the flying robot that was supposed to be remotely controlled by Yin, however, seemed to obey no will and had a habit of simply flying to the parlour and crashing into the display unit there. He had already lost a couple of antics because of this.

He tweaked the device before him once more. "There," he said. "Try connecting to this one, Yin."

The black bracer's cogs began to whirl and it's dials displayed new measurements. The mechanism lifted upwards, a small amount of steam appearing from it's joints and it's four tiny wheels began to turn. The two small, glass beads upon it's conical shaped head lit up and the tip began to twitch. The tail upon the other side of its main body unfurled and like a whip, swiped sideways, knocking down several tools as it did. Then all movement stopped, abruptly.

"Well... it's a start," Kyan smiled.

The butler entered the room a few minutes later with a bowl of porridge and sliced apple and a cup of the tea his young Master preferred of late. Kyan frowned. "I would have thought the maid might have brought this," he said, "you have enough to do without serving me directly as well."

"The last maid did not show up for work this morning," the man replied.

"Another one?" Kyan asked. "Tell me, was the payrise I offered not generous enough?"

"I don't believe that was the problem, young Master," the butler replied. "While Millicent left with notice to care for her sick parents, the other two maids appeared to have no plans to leave the young Master's household."

"We'll give Miss Gertrude the benefit of the doubt," Kyan informed, she was the last maid in his employ for the other woman had not appeared in nearly two weeks. "In the meantime, advertise for a new maid."

"We are also in need of a chef," the butler told him. "Davis has not returned to the house since he went to visit a Doctor last Thursday. I fear the worst for him."

"Understood," Kyan replied. Ah, he had a chef in mind, a pity he had no idea where his husband was in this lifetime. Yin had once been able to connect with Yang, but it was brief and the connection broken a few seconds later. All Yin could be certain of was that Yang was somewhere to the east of them. Kyan had altered his usual walking route to that direction, but there had been no sign of the man so far. Of course, the 'east' was such a vague description, who knew how far to the east that was or even if Yang and his man were even there, where they had been, anymore.

He lifted himself to his feet, after finishing his breakfast and Wilfred took away the bowl. He was still slightly thick of figure, not quite as slim nor slender as he was used to and he certainly did not have the muscle he had become accustomed too in his last life, but he was on the right track. At least he could no longer be described in any terms meaning spherical or bulbous any more.

Kyan located the kite where he expected to find it and gathered it into his arms. He hoped to have these two robotic devices be his eyes in the sky and nose upon the ground and have them head east. He wanted to be reunited with his husband soon, but he also hoped that the devices would help him discover exactly what the corruption was. A sense of urgency had gripped him of late, perhaps it was due to his own mind clearly aware of the countdown this mission had. They had less than ten years to find five outsiders and save them from the collapsing file, as well as their own skins to keep. Who knew what sorts of difficulties they would face in achieving this!