Chương 19: “Floors”

A montage chapter. A month, compressed. He reclaimed the fourth floor on a Tuesday. It was a wreck: collapsed columns, flooded passages, something that used to be a trap room now just a room with a large hole in it. He rebuilt what he could. Left the rest. Marked it for later. The fifth floor on a Thursday. Smaller than he remembered.

He found three of his old minions down there, dormant, small things, not the terrifying kind, just the kind that moved through walls and made sounds that shouldn't come from that direction. He woke them. They regarded him. He regarded them. They'd been down there for a very long time. He was not quite sure who he was when he left them. They seemed to understand this without being told. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. He didn't name them. That would be absurd.

June named them. She couldn't see them but she sensed them, a cold breath on the stairs, a flicker at the edge of the room, and she named them Tuesday, Gerald, and Speck. Vorrath did not confirm this. The minions did not object. Gerald, in particular, seemed pleased. The Seekers came twice more that month. He handled both. He was getting faster.

On the last day of the month, June fell asleep with her homework half done and one shoe still on, and Lauren came in, took the shoe off, turned the lamp down, pulled the blanket up. She paused on the way out and looked at the windowsill. She didn't say anything. She turned the lamp off and left. System: Bond Strength: 54%. Floors Reclaimed: 5 of 31. Minions: 3. You named them. Don't say you didn't name them. Gerald knows his name. Gerald has always known his name.