Depression by cmsix

Chapter 34

I'll never forget Big Boys last line from the night before.

"There will be some initial confusion but we will help keep them calm if we need to," he, she, or it said.

It turned out to be the most understated comment I'd ever heard, and the help provided was drastically understated too. I think it was nearly dawn when I woke to a gentle knock at my bedroom door. Before I could make my way to the edge of the bed a firmer knock sounded.

"I hear you and I'm awake; I'll be there in a few seconds," I said, nearly shouting toward the door and waking all my companions in the process.

I dragged up a pair of Wranglers and walked barefoot to the door to see what was up. I got the first surprise of many to come. Geron was at the door and so was Francine, the both asked me a question, in French. Of course I didn't understand.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell them to speak English when I realized that they couldn't. They never had been able to, or if they had they hadn't realized it. Apparently I'd been receiving immaculate translations, courtesy of Big Boy, and for some reason I wasn't receiving the same service this morning.

It wouldn't be much of a problem, though I did wonder what Big Boy was up to. Deciding not to find out right now, I asked Fawne to come over and translate for me. She didn't seem to wonder why I needed her help with it once again - she just came over after slipping on a robe - to try and find out what was going on, meanwhile I had to make myself not ask Big Boy what the fuck he was doing.

Fawne listened to both Francine and Geron, then she turned to me.

"Francine says there are hundreds of new people with us now and she also says that the whole house is different. Geron says there are new barns, more horses, and a few hundred more men. He also says that the grounds outside have changed radically as have some of the outer walls," Fawne told me.

Well that was nothing I hadn't expected. My only real surprise was that I could no longer understand Francine or Geron.

"Ask Geron to try making sure the new men are fed and then to bring any high ranking members of the new arrivals to breakfast with him.

"Ask Francine if we have enough organization remaining to make sure we get breakfast."

She spoke with Geron first and it seemed that just a little direction was all he needed to get started. He left after telling Fawne that he would see to things.

Fawne spoke to Francine then and there was some back and forth for a few minutes, then Francine left after giving me a smile and Fawne started to explain.

"Francine said that she would speak with Harriette, the head of the kitchen help, and make sure that breakfast was ready soon, no matter the kitchen and dining room have changed again. Geron is going to see if he can bring order to the chaos of the new men.

"It must have been strange for them, going to sleep in one place and waking up in another," Fawne said.

"They'll get used to it, after all, we had to," I said, and she smiled at that.

I gave everyone a good morning kiss, thanking my lucky star that at least we hadn't gained any occupants in our bed during the night, then I headed for the shower, and Tutsie came with me. He took to his miniature lawn while I got wet.

After drying I went back to the bedroom and dressed. All the women and Meka were in their bath, or at least I thought that's where they were. Tutsie sniffed around the room while I put my clothes on.

Meka came out of the women's bathroom dressed in jeans and a work shirt just after I'd dressed in the same type thing. She smiled at me as Tutsie went to her and she picked him up.

"Bathroom not change much Daddy," she said, "Except much bigger, more closets, more clothes. Not for us."

Now there was something odd, but maybe not so much. Apparently things had been made ready for me to have more members for my young harem. I couldn't really gripe about that.

Looking at the bed I noticed something I hadn't before. It seemed almost the same, but was now twice as large as the stretched version I'd first received. No doubt it was more preparation for additional women. A measure of how accustomed to ridiculous changes I'd become was that I didn't even wonder about the bed.

Soon enough the women came out dressed for the day - Fawne, Cécile, Adèle, and Delphine in French finery, Jaycee in jeans and a work shirt. We went out the door intending to go to the dining room but we were in for a major shock.

Everything was different and not just a little different. From our door it was about thirty feet to a railing. The railing was to prevent people from falling to their death, or to grievous injury at least.

Looking down from the rail I could see that we were on the fifth floor, the top one. The shocking thing was that when we went to bed there were only two stories, the basement, and the Big Boy basement.

It was a beautiful building, inside at least. It was also much larger than it had been. The atrium I was looking at now was larger than the building I'd gone to sleep in. It was completely open from the glass-domed roof to the floor below. Looking across the way I could see the rails protecting the edges of the other floors.

There were four other entrance doors along the outer wall of this floor. A few feet away from our room there was an elevator; it was easy to spot because its doors resembled They's other work. I led my little group to the elevator and we entered. Now my only problem was finding the dining room.

It was like a normal elevator inside, kinda; at least it had a panel with buttons. I'd been right, we were on the fifth floor, and from the panel I could tell that there were still two basement levels. Good so far.

Taking a wild guess I pressed the button for the first floor and the doors opened again in a few seconds. We hadn't felt even a hint of motion but we were on the main floor now and things were looking up. Francine was waiting for us and she led the way to our new dining room. Fawne talked with her as we went and I noticed that Cécile and Delphine had a few words with her too.

Everything was changed in the dining room too, even the main attraction, the table. It was familiar at least but larger now. I took my seat at the head and the others joined me in their mostly normal seating arrangement. Tutsie's highstool was still the same one from my house.

Thankfully, our coffee appeared soon and was brought by the same serving girls in their now standard French Maid garb. I enjoyed the view and then started enjoying the coffee. Peace and quiet reigned for nearly forty-five seconds, and then Francine led seven more beautiful women in.

Fawne was up right away and she went to them, I followed her but didn't think I could be any help. By the time I reached the group Fawne had calmed their initial discomfort but I could tell by the looks in their eyes that they were still skittish.

Fawne introduced me to Abella, Jacques' last wife and then to Nanine and Giselle, his daughters. Abella couldn't have been over two years older than Giselle, Jacques' youngest. Of course I already knew that his first wife, the girls' mother, was deceased.

Next, I met Babette. She was Searlus' widow and she was only a year or two older than Trinette, Searlus' youngest. Kamille and Silana were between them in age.

Fawne continued to play hostess and led the new arrivals to seats at the table. The conversation was all French for a few moments, leaving Meka, Jaycee, and I in the dark, so to speak. No matter, we talked among ourselves about nothing mostly. I knew that this must be a shock to the newcomers and I was just as glad to let Fawne give the sad news about their husbands and fathers, and the girls' brothers.

When our serving girls began appearing with real food most of the conversation stopped, or at least it died down remarkably. Confused or not the newcomers had good appetites and I was glad to see it. Of course the wonderful food might have had something to do with it.

After we were mostly done eating the conversation started up again, but it was in English this time and the first thing said was Abella apologizing for the way they'd spoken in French and left me out of things earlier.

"It isn't necessary to apologize, I understand that this must be surprising to you and in fact it is a little surprising for me, though I knew about it in advance. The degree of change is what's shocking," I said.

"Degree?" Abella asked, making it a question by her tone.

"Yes, the changes to this residence were much more than I expected. I don't know if you noticed it, but my home is now five stories tall," I said, hoping that at least a little fog had been spread around.

Some must have been but it wasn't as thick as I could have wished. None of them asked me how such changes could be possible but I could nearly see that they wanted to. I decided to make myself scarce. I meant to go find Geron, since he hadn't showed up for breakfast.

I excused myself and left fawn, Cécile, Delphine, and Adèle to do the talking. Jaycee, Meka, and Tutsie came with me.

Outside the dining room we were lost again, but I headed for the front entrance, knowing that it would lead to somewhere outside. It did and what we found might have been even more shocking.

I hoped this would be the last time, for a while at least, when I'd have to walk out the front door wondering what things would look like.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciated everything that was being done on my behalf, but it was disorienting to have a new environment every morning. Especially since the changes from one day to the next would normally be completely impossible.

Today was no different. Every building that had been between Pierre's former home and the wall's main entrance gate was gone, just as his former home was. The roads had been rearranged too, again.

The main road coming through the front gate split into a very big circular drive about two hundred feet inside the wall. The big circle surrounded what was now an actual military type parade ground that even had bleachers and a reviewing stand off to one side.

The bleachers were situated so they wouldn't detract from the view of the new building we'd just come out of. When someone came in through the gate, my new accommodations were the featured attraction and there was nothing else to steal anyone's attention.

There was practically no chance for that anyway since a five-story, elliptically cylindrical building out here in sixteen-twenty rural France was an attraction of its own. The only things detracting from the smooth ellipsoid's outer surface were the large windows and the massive balcony near the top. A little considering and calculating let me know it was off my new bedroom.

When on that balcony, no doubt I'd be able to survey most of my domain, the pleasant looking parts of it anyway. The town that had sprung up around Pierre's castle was behind the new building now. My home from the future, with its barn, garage, and swimming lake was still here, about where it had been since coming, though it seemed it had been moved a little.

My new digs though were the star of the show. What had first been scattered hovels and had been turned to semi-organized slightly improved peasant homes by the first rearranging was now a giant manicured lawn, probably thirty acres of it.

The parade ground was off to one side of it with the bleachers but the effect was a giant lawn to set off a large, impossible for this time and place, building. It was a starkly beautiful building too, but it was all impossible.

Still, here it was, with its paved circular driveway from the main gate to small portico of my new hotel. That's what it looked like to me anyway. It wasn't a house or a castle; it was like a small, slightly ornate hotel, out in the middle of nowhere France.

It was too much. Much too much. Even though it was beautiful, it was too fucking much. I'd tried not to bother Big Boy over this yet but now I shot him a thought.

"This has gone way too far," I directed to Big Boy.

No answer. Nothing at all. I couldn't really say that the silence was deafening because my communications with Big Boy had always been silent, but the nothing was deafening. Big Boy wasn't there. In fact I poked around inside my head and no one was there. No one but me.

I checked the little virtual door that they'd installed, the one that had upset them so when I'd closed it. It was still there but it was closed again. Closed and locked somehow because when I tried I couldn't open it.

"If that don't just take the biscuit," I thought, remembering Marvin and the Frogstar battle machine from "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams.

"Well, this is another fine mess you've gotten us into, Ollie," came to mind as another applicable quote. Remembering quotes wasn't getting me anywhere though. It seemed I'd gotten what I asked for after all.

That thought made me remember another damned quote, "Be careful what you wish for," and that one made me remember the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

Fuck, I was living in interesting times ok. Hell, times was the operative word here; times being plural. I was living in more than one time and if that didn't top the list, I didn't know how to get from one to the other by myself.

That little tidbit helped me realize that I had to deal with the time I was in at the time. My here and now was the important thing - at the moment - so to speak. If I never got back to where and when I thought I belonged I'd have to live now for the duration. God dammit, why did it have to be so confusing?

I didn't think I'd be stuck in this when, but I didn't have any way of knowing. First things first, Jaycee and I needed to talk.

"I think we'd better all go down to the armory," I said, to Jaycee, Meka, and Tutsie.

Actually, I was hoping that the armory was still there. If we were stuck in this now without Big Boy's assistance we were going to end up needing a lot of the things that were in that armory sooner or later.

The old way to the armory wasn't here anymore; it couldn't be because that building wasn't here anymore. I hoped that the basement buttons I'd seen in the elevator led to the same place. We entered and I tried the bottom button.

Thank somebody for small miracles. Things in the bottom basement were familiar. We checked out the armory first, or at least I did. I still hadn't mentioned anything to Jaycee about Big Boy being AWOL.

Damned if the armory didn't look bigger too. One of the first new things I spotted was a box of pills like the ones that had been made for Jahedo. It made sense in a way, since diseases had killed off millions in Europe too. I didn't spend any time on the pills specifically though, I kept looking around.

There seemed to be more weapons in here now. Most of the additional area was filled with more of the bows and arrows like Jahedo had received, and now there were crossbow versions too, and bolts for the crossbows.

This made good sense to me. A team of trained snipers with Barretts could do wonders in this time from the wall we had, but if I were going to stay here long I wouldn't want to use them unless I had to.

It would have been different if I wasn't staying, but since there was every chance I would be here for quite a while now, I didn't want to chance getting the "witchcraft" shit started. Being burned at the stake, or worse, just didn't appeal to me.

I know I had a nearly impregnable wall, but there was always that nearly part. Sure as hell I was outnumbered here and no doubt the church I'd been so rude to on my first day would be trying to stir things up against me, especially after it was widely know that I'd killed three Barons and was squatting on their lands.

Of course I was curious as hell about what had become of Big Boy but I didn't have any way to find out. It was day-to-day for me now, just like with anyone else. Hell, I'd done it that way all my life anyhow and I wasn't too proud to go back to the old ways if times were really hard.

Jaycee was going over everything in detail, checking every box, and feeling every knife edge to make sure it was sharp. It's probably what I should have been doing too, but when I tried to help her she ran me off, telling me to go act like a general, somewhere else.

Meka laughed when Jaycee dismissed me and then she grabbed my hand to lead me away.

"Poor Daddy, come. Coffee and cake cheer you up. Maids help too," she said, leading me back to the elevator.

Damned if Francine wasn't waiting by the door to the newly expanded dining room. She led us to a different place and it was a smaller, coffee break size room. Even though it was smaller it was designed for the rich and famous.

It was smaller than the dining room and the decor was even more opulent, if that was possible. The important part was the same though. Harriet's cooking was every bit as good as it always had been and though I hate to admit it, everything was more comfortable.

Fawne, Cécile, Delphine, and Adèle joined us in a few minutes. After they were served I asked Fawne how the morning had gone.

"Better than I expected it to. Amazingly, all the daughters seemed unmoved by their father's deaths and not a one expressed the slightest regret for losing their brothers.

"Nothing was said openly, you understand, but I could tell they'd have been devastated if their new stepmothers had been killed and were only annoyed that their real fathers had been," she told me.

"Are their accommodations suitable? I asked.

"If they are it's their own fault. Their suites consist of their living quarters from their former homes. Everything they had is here now, even though they are arranged with one exit to the atrium for each family. The door from the atrium opens into an entry parlor with doors to their individual quarters," Fawne said.

"So, Big Boy was up to his old tricks to the last," I said.

"To the last?" Fawne asked.

"The last so far. I've had no contact from my friends since I woke this morning," I said.

"Oh, whatever that means. You will be having contact from you new family members tonight," Fawne said, grinning.

I didn't say anything, just gave her a look that I know conveyed my curiosity.

"Some of them were indignant at first, but I made them see the light. I pointed out that as conquered "kept women" their lives would be so much easier than the alternative," Fawne said.

"What alternative?" I asked.

"Camp followers for their new lord's army," Fawne said, maintaining a straight face.

Delphine, Cécile, and Adèle couldn't do as well. They all burst out laughing and kept it up for a while.

"You should have seen the looks on their faces. They had it much easier than we did too. Fawne explained the facts of life to them much more politely than you explained them to us," Delphine said.

"I think I liked his way better, even though I'm still waiting for the next lesson," Cécile said, and they all giggled this time, even Meka.

"Don't worry Cécile, it will be better this way. Just think of the audience you'll have when it finally happens," Fawne said.

Cécile blushed at that and after a few seconds Adèle did too. Strangely Fawne seemed to also, but just a tiny bit and it didn't really look like it was from embarrassment. Maybe the though of watching me plow their furrows turned her on.

We'd see soon enough. If Big Boy was gone for a while maybe I could finally get laid at night instead of talking to him, or her, or whatever.

Just as I gobbled up the last available pastry, to make sure it didn't go to waste, Geron came in. At least he didn't bother knocking this time. I knew he was back to French now and I knew the reason, or at least I had a hint. I let Fawne talk to him and then she explained.

"Geron said that there is a party approaching the front gate. His men saw it using the new binoculars you provided. It seems to be churchmen the lookouts think they are probably heading for the compound where I was being held," Fawne said, giving a small shiver of revulsion at the last.

"If they are headed there why would they come here first?" I asked.

"They have to, your new walls contain their holdings now and the road leads right through here. Or maybe they are your holdings now," Fawne said.

"If they are within my walls they are definitely mine now. I guess I'll get the chance to explain it to the gentlemen," I said, having a happy thought for the first time since I woke.

Geron gave a small grin when Fawne translated for him and he asked her something.

"He asks if he should prepare an honor guard for the party, to meet them once they're inside the gate."

"Yes, I want every man at arms here to meet them, unless they are guarding other gates. I want a show of force," I said.

She translated again, the other way this time and Geron left grinning widely. So much for a few peaceful days.