TVRWS 51 (Patreon)

51: The ViTech Family

The next day, Vivian visited Voros at the guest house.

"ANIMAL… NO… SHOES!"

Seeing the mad Duergar throwing a fit at the servants, Vivian signaled them all to stand back.

"Your Ladyship, I am afraid we are unable to make this savage learn anything about the simplest of manners. The Lord has instructed us…" One of the footmen approached Vivian with a terrified face.

"That man you just called savage is an important guest and deemed worthy enough to be let in the guest house by your Lord. Are you saying that the Lord would invite savages to his house?" Vivian asked with an angry face.

"I… am…" The footman became flustered immediately and looke between Voros and Vivian a few times before falling silent.

"I was just messing with you. He's giving you quite the tough time, isn't he?" Vivian immediately eased up the tense footman.

"Oh! My lady, I was…" Relieved, the footman looked at Voros and nodded, "He's quite dreadful, honestly. Keeps calling himself the Animal, can you believe it? His teeth and nails are sharpened like one even… and twice as dirty. He chomped off a candlestick earlier as if he was eating raw butter."

"God! Glad he didn't start biting flesh."

"We are all touched by your concern, my Lady. Though this may require a rougher touch, may I suggest? Shall I call the guards? They can restrain him while we shave and pave him."

"Ha! Nice one…" Vivian laughed at the phrase used by the servant then looked at Voros, "Well, rather than rough, let's try a softer approach first."

Vivian instructed the servants to return to their chores except for a couple of them and waited until the room became quiet. It seemed that Voros had become quite upset with the treatment he was given.

"Mr. Voros, I am sorry for the inconvenience. Those men were simply doing what they were told." Vivian spoke as she got fixed up the chair he threw at the door just as she got in and then she dragged it by herself, refusing any assistance from the servants.

She sat on the chair and observed the situation in the wrecked room. It goes without saying that Voros, who adapted to fourteen years of living in a small cage, had the opposite condition of being claustrophobic. Vivian wasn't completely sure if it was some sort of anxiety after being free or if Voros didn't like spacious places.

He seemed to have torn off some of the furniture and made himself a living space right in the corner of the room. Yet despite that rough appearance and crazy behavior, he reminded Nadia of a street cat she adopted once.

"I see you are back at calling yourself Animal again." She spoke to Voros, who finally decided to look towards her from his corner.

"Chief… sorry… Voros… confused." He replied, trying to put words together as politely as possible.

She looked at him and felt nothing but pity.

"It seems that you didn't like the bed or the room at all. Too much at once, right?" She asked.

With a grunt, Voros nodded with his eyes distracted.

"Truth be told, I hate soft beds too. My back starts killing me after I sleep in one of those buffy beds. Hard beds though, they are the best."

Voros nodded to Vivian again.

"How about this? We get you a bedding you like. Instead of taking out the guts of that poor mattress, I'll find you something you like."

"Hide…"

"Hide, huh? Animal Skin, nothing too fancy, some layers of goat skin would do."

"Ah, straw… fresh!"

"Really? A bedding of fresh straw and goat skin. Kings used to sleep on those a few hundred years back."

"Right!" Voros showed a grimacing smile as he nodded to Vivian.

"How about food? If you don't say you like meat, I'll personally bash your head against a wall."

"HAHA! MEAT!"

"Heard what Mr. Voros ordered? Roast a goat for the man, bring a keg of drink, nothing too fancy, the common beer would do. And prepare the right bedding for him, take all this unnecessary furniture out." Vivian ordered.

The two remaining servants looked at each other, trying not to faint, before hastily running off to bring more hands for these orders.

"Alright, Mr. Voros, happy now?"

"Yes. Chief… thanks."

"Anytime. Now, let's talk about what matters."

"Work?"

"Not quite, Future."

Voros is aware of what Vivian wants from him and he knows how good he is and what his true worth is. Still, for a man of his talents, his priorities are set in a different way than a common man would. The cost of genius is mostly madness in his case.

"Listen, I am employing you, not holding you as my thrall or captive. If one day you wish to pack and leave, even if that day is today, you will receive a gift and be on your way. I, Vivian Moore, am as true as my word." Vivian said and then leaned towards him, "But if you choose to work for me… with me, the things we will do, my friend, will shake this world."

Seeing the ambitious Vivian's true face, Voros kept his calm and listened.

"I mean… 3D Printing? By hand? And at that speed you did? My guy, I'll make you print things you can't even imagine." Vivian smiled and Voros could see some of the madness reflected in her eyes.

"Print? I do like…"

"Me too. And I promise to be a fair Chief. I'll find you Anastasia, the woman you love, no matter where she is. My family's reach is all over."

"Yes…" At the mention of Anastasia, Voros' eyes gleamed with spirit.

"Look here… I've taken the liberty to draw her face from the bust you've made. Artistic as it is, a bust is a bit hard to move around when we're looking for someone."

Vivian retrieved a sheet of paper for Voros to show him the drawing she had made for Anastasia. As soon as Voros saw the drawing, his whole being tensed up for a second as he took the paper.

"I say she is a beautiful woman indeed."

"… Yes…"

"Are there any details in the drawing that are not right?" She asked.

"Eyes…"

Vivian received the paper from Voros and compared the eyes of the bust to the painting. She was sure of her drawing skills and made sure to not miss any of the fine details Voros added.

"The eyes, you say? Is it… the eye color?" Vivian asked.

"Hmm!" Voros nodded.

"I drew with a pencil so it got a little dark. Should I lighten the color a bit?"

"More."

"More than a bit… fine, I'll draw the iris without filling in any color… like… that."

Vivian used a piece of natural rubber and erased the irises before drawing them again without filling the color as it seemed most of the duergar eye color was rather bright. Voros looked at the paper again but this time, he paused for a bit of time and appeared to be saddened.

"Is it right this time?"

"Right… good."

"Glad to be of help. I'll send this drawing to a friend of my father's who can help us look for her. But… I wanted to know more about her, any other thing that may help us narrow down the search."

Voros' eyes started to move left and right and he seemed at a loss for words, which made Vivian frown a bit.

"Don't you remember any…"

"Cards…" Voros spoke.

"You want me to lay down cards?" Vivian asked.

Voros shook his head.

"She… knows cards." He said.

"Aha!" Vivian smiled, "That's very romantic. She lays Tarot cards, that's how you know how to read Tarot this well?"

Voros nodded.

"Well well, Anastasia, you have become a very interesting person, even I want to meet her now." Vivian turned the paper over and recorded that Anastasia does Tarot readings, "What else can you tell me of her?"

"Hmm… cards, cups, water, fire, crystal, rune…"

"Woah, woah, woah!" Vivian stopped Voros as he began mumbling, "Anastasia is not some mere Tarot reader, she's a full-on Fortune Teller?"

"Hmm…" Voros grunted in affirmation but he seemed a bit off, not that anything he was doing was normal, but Vivian could tell he was holding something back.

"Alright, you'll need to start from the beginning now. Slowly, try to remember all the details. I am free for a few hours and we can just keep talking."

Vivian had to start from the beginning since Voros' speech disorder and odd sense of priorities weren't helping. She made a small list of questions and made Voros give her all the answers she needed as he ate his food and drank his beer.

According to what she figured out from him, Anastasia is older than Voros by two cycles. In the Duergar calendar, that's half a year, which means she is also 39 or maybe 40. Unlike Voros who was born to the clan chief's family, Anastasia is the daughter of the clan's shaman. She was raised to be a Seer of the Chasm, a traditional job given to those who make the way for the Duergar miners who search for their lost homeland underground.

According to Voros, she was taken by the slavers from the Novark Tsardom with many of the clan after they were raided and Voros was also a captive. They were lovers before the incident and he hasn't seen her since.

"How long since that happened?" Vivian asked.

"59 Cycles… 7 Nights…" Voros replied.

The pencil in Vivian's hand paused. She looked at him and couldn't do anything but stare.

"14 years? Almost 15." She asked, "You're 39… 14 years mean… more than one third of your life… you were captive?"

Slowly, Voros nodded.

"That…" Vivian wanted to say something but she couldn't find words.

After scrambling a few times, she turned to Voros, who was busy eating the roasted meat with bones on it and a slight smile appeared on her face.

No wonder this man is like what he is. Withered beyond his actual age, can't speak well since he didn't have a single meaningful conversation for 14 years, and was struck with all sorts of mental disorders.

She felt the need to speak to him about this but she can't imagine how it felt for him to live like that.

"Stubborn man!"

If she was in his shoes, she wouldn't be stubborn like this, she would have done something with this metallurgy talent, made a worth for herself, and not acted based on pride and tradition.

To waste his life and self like that… Vivian couldn't tell if it was selfishness or selflessness. No matter, only time will tell.

"Alright, Mr. Voros, we need to get you dressed up."

"NO!"

"Listen, you are going to your workplace right now, you are going to be the Head Artisan of my company and you will choose your assistants as you prefer them. You will do things how you see fit and you will get a nice salary to spend. All I ask you is to help me help you."

"No… shoes."

"I'm afraid that's not how it's done. If you don't want shoes, we can find you a nice pair of boots. Even if you wear old clothes, a man's prestige starts from his footwear."

"Grrr!"

"Don't snarl at me, Mister. As chief, my words are final."

"…"

Voros fell silent and seemed unable to argue as Vivian posed her authority. This made her smile and be confident enough to make her next move.

"But before you get to change, I'm afraid that we…" Vivian paused her sentence and snapped with her fingers twice.

Two houseguards entered the room, wearing dark coats different from the suits worn by the footmen, and seemed to have trained their physique with passion. In a strange but pleasant theme, the two men were baldies and had similar exquisite curled mustaches, one blonde, and the other ginger.

Voros was a smart guy so the moment he saw those two, his eyes widened and he looked at Vivian as if he was betrayed.

"… You'll have to bathe first."

***

It was a fierce battle, one where people risked life and limb to get through the unkempt mess and the lifetime worth of soot and dirt on a single man.

"Mr. Voros, looking handsome. The boys took care of you, I see."

Shaken, Voros looked at Vivian before turning back to the two gentlemen guards who smiled at him with white bright teeth as they flexed their incredible muscles.

"Thank you, Mr. Ray and Mr. Rusty." Vivian thanked the two men.

"It's our pleasure, Miss Vivian." Ray replied.

"We must invite our little bro to hit the gym with us sometime." Rusty spoke while winking passionately at Voros.

"Little bro can use a little bit of training." Ray found the idea agreeable.

"Hohoho!" Rusty smiled as he flexed more.

"Devil twins!" 

Voros seemed traumatized by the treatment of the Armstrong Twins, Ray and Rusty, yet he was now a completely different person than before. 

While they couldn't get him to shave his messy hair and beard, they managed to dip him in hot water enough until his skin became clearer even though it was gray like all subterranean races.

Finally, he wore new clothes that fit him. Vivian knew that he would need durability rather than style, which wouldn't fit him anyway, so she found him some right but strong clothes. A pair of boots that wouldn't be worn out by his claws, some strong brown trousers, a tan shirt, and a dark vest that he refused to close.

He maintained his rough appearance but still cleaned up. Even though he hated it, now he can pass the bare minimum requirements for looking less terrifying among other Duergar.

"One last thing." Vivian said, which led Voros immediately to hold his hair together.

He seemed on edge and ready to make a stance but rather than asking something of him, Vivian handed him a large bag.

It was a suitcase, similar to the one carried by Jane, that was better than most suitcases. It was made of hard material layered with a fancy leather exterior and had a locking mechanism on its front.

"This is a specially made toolbox for you, Mr. Voros. Courtesy of my Father." Vivian said as he handed it to him, "You can use this to store all your equipment without the need to keep them hidden in metal bars."

Voros received the bag which he started to gently touch with his hand, fully familiarizing himself with its mechanical lock.

"Elder Chief… gratitude." Voros spoke.

"I'll deliver your gratitude." Vivian said and waited as Voros took out his tools from the cage bars that he hollowed and started assembling some of them before putting them all together in the bag.

"Is everything now in order?" Vivian asked.

"Hmm!" Voros nodded.

"Alright then, your first day on the job starts now."

Vivian opened the door behind her which led to outside the guest house. As the bright sun overwhelmed the Duergar's sensitive eyes. As a nocturnal race, the Duergar could still work during the daytime but their eyesight and senses would be greatly affected, so it took him a few seconds of covering his eyes to finally start walking outside following Vivian.

There, he could see Vivian meeting with a few more individuals. These were Logan, Esmeralda, Jane, and Oscar.

"Everyone, this is Mr. Voros who will work with us from now on. Have you finished the preparation for the workshop?"

"Yes, director. The basement of the building has been fully prepared and stocked according to the guidelines we received from Mr. Wyberd." Jane replied.

"Fantastic job, Jane. Today is the day… the official first day for ViTech." Vivian said with excitement as she turned to Voros.

Standing with Logan and Esmeralda to her left and Jane and Oscar to her right, Voros' eyes barely adapted to the bright outside. The carriage's door was opened and Vivian offered her hand to Voros.

"Voros, let me officially welcome you to the ViTech family."