Chapter 7: One is Insane

"Come in," I said, and a young woman with a maid's uniform and a black and white cap over her red hair came in. Her slightly freckled face was impassive as she gave me a small bow and looked for a place to put down her covered tray.

Quickly, I shuffled a few things around, trying to make sure I kept track of everything, and she set the tray down and bowed before turning and leaving without saying a word. That was an odd interaction, I thought to myself as I pulled off the cover of the food. The smell of fresh tomato basil soup wafted out throughout the room, and I started to salivate slightly. I didn't realize how hungry I had been, but apparently, fighting in magic and talking for hours really took the energy out of me. I took the small piece of bread off to the side, dipped it, and dug in.

As I ate, I read through my schedule for the day. It didn't have anything that stood out to me. I had the first half of the day blocked out with the challenge. Then, after that, I had a couple meetings, but checking at the small mechanical clock over the mantel, I still had time before I needed to worry about them. They didn't have any location on the meeting entries, but judging based off of the titles used, I assumed they would be coming to me, so hopefully, they would just show up when they were ready.

The schedule said nothing about what the meetings were about, unfortunately, but I only had two of them. One in an hour and one right before dinner. Other than that, it had nothing marked. I suppose it was up to me. How do I spend my time? What duties did I have, and what duties did I have to perform? I suppose there was some level of training I'd have to do to keep myself in shape.

Maybe I had to be teaching Potentials? Hopefully, someone would let me know if I was forgetting to work with them. I also realized that I had asked Nine to clear my schedule of anything important. I wonder if she had canceled these meetings? Well, I suppose if she had, they just wouldn't show up. So it wasn't that big of a deal. I flipped through a few more pages and didn't really notice anything besides an interesting thing.

Every half day, a different number was written on the side of the piece of paper, marking one through nine. Was this what Nine was mentioning? Was it One's turn? Nine was for the morning, and One was now. Tomorrow, I will have Five and Two.

I realized after several pages that these were not at all a balanced amount of appearances. One showed up nearly three or four times as frequently as the next number. I wonder what this was all about. Did I have personal attendance of some sort? My mind flashed back to the morning. Or something else. Sighing, I closed the schedule, not really seeing what else I could get out of it for now, and went to work on the second lock on my desk.

As I was ducked behind it, flailing about with my lock picks, I heard the door open again. A voice with a sharp and staccato way of speaking called out, "Master. Where are you?"

I raised my head over the desk and took in the blond-haired beauty standing in my doorway. Took a risk and said, "Hello One."

The blond woman turned her back to me as she shut the door behind her. But as I spoke, her head whipped around, and she looked at my eyes. I felt a hint of connection as her brilliant blue eyes met mine. We looked at each other for a moment that stretched out a little bit longer than it probably should, and then she opened her mouth to yell the alarm.

My heart fluttered as I dropped my picks and launched myself over the desk, managing to avoid knocking my papers everywhere as I pushed her up against the door, clamping my hand over her mouth. Still, the first tiny bit of a scream made it out before the rest was muffled by my large hand pressed against her dainty little mouth.

She struggled and tried to bite my fingers as I held her jaw shut with my thumb under the tip of her chin and my finger hooked over her nose while trying to do my best to control her limbs with one knee and my arm.

It was a losing battle as she managed to punch me several times in the ribs before I wound her up. Her back pressed against my chest, and all limbs accounted for.

"What is it?" I hissed and slightly uncovered her mouth. My eyes promised her a whole lot of pain if she shouted.

So, instead of shouting, she simply hissed at me. "Who are you?"

I blinked. That's a great question, I thought. But I couldn't say that.

"What?" I said in my most confused voice.

"You're not the Master. You look just like him. Every detail is right. What are you, a changeling?"

"What?" I repeated this time, actually confused. Changeling? How would she see through me so quickly? I didn't do anything. I just said hello. No one else gave me any trouble.

"Err. Hello. Are you not One?" I asked, confused. Had I got it wrong? That might not have given me away.

"Yes, I'm known as One," she said. Now thoroughly confused, but she didn't seem like she was about to scream. She realized how helpless that would be. "The question is, who are you?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"How do you... Why do you say I'm not?" I paused, not even understanding, not able to figure out what I was supposed to say. I wouldn't call myself Master. Just felt wrong. I didn't know my name. I didn't know what title I used. I didn't know who I was to her, I didn't, and this hesitation was more than enough if she hadn't known already to prove it.

"I'm. I-," I said, willing to take a long shot. "I don't know," I whispered.

"What?" she said. Our roles are completely reversed. I relaxed my grip on her a little bit until I was just holding on to her upper arms while standing across from her.

"I don't know!" I whispered again, this time in an extremely frustrated tone. "Nine woke me up this morning, and I have no memories. I don't know what I am or who I'm doing, where I'm at, why I'm in this body, or how do I know how to move like I do? I don't know," I whisper-shouted the last bit in her face. Fully fed up with the amount of bullshit I had to deal with so far Just this morning.

She blinked in absolute confusion and then smiled. "You're not Master!

She started to laugh, with tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "You're not Master!"

"Oh," she said, sighing, and her arms moved again. Surprised as I was, I did nothing to block them as she wrapped me up in the most bone-crushing hug I've ever felt. She pressed her face into my neck and muttered again, "You're not Master."

Okay. What the fuck was going on? Why did I let someone so dangerous get so close? It was all I could think about as I tried to figure out what to do. It took me several minutes to call the nearly hysterical woman down and get her sat down in one of the chairs facing the desk. Instead of going across the room and sitting in the large chair behind it, I took the one next to her.

"Okay." I said. "Would you mind telling me what the fuck is going on? I am so fucking confused."

She took a deep breath, pinched her lips together, and wiped the corner of her eye again, where tears had been slowly leaking for the past several minutes. "Well, what do you remember? No memories from last night? No memories of anything before this morning?"

I nodded, "I woke up, and I found a letter I had been writing on my desk."

And then I went to narrate my morning to her, telling her everything, holding nothing back.

"So you're not some enemy possessing Master. You are someone new." I don't know what it was about this woman, but she was 100% ready to believe me. And I just couldn't trust it, and I needed to figure out why.

"So." I asked, "how did you know I wasn't your Master? So far, no one seems to have an inkling."

"Well, Nine told me that you were acting a little strange today, but nothing too weird. So I just figured maybe you were in one of your moods. Then also, your aura is all wrong."

"My what?"

"Your aura. That's why- That's right. How much do you know about magic?" She asked in a whisper, as if even saying the word around this place was dangerous.

"I felt the shadow magic from the challenge," I said while also keeping my voice down. I could connect with it slightly, but-"

She blinked and cut me off. "Really? That is interesting. Well. That would make sense, as Master was a practiced and talented shadow mage. But I'm so valuable but so valuable to him. I was one because I can see auras. I can read a lot about a person. I can tell if they're lying, if they're a good person, if they're a bad person, their temperament, and a lot of other random stuff. The previous you liked to keep me close because I would tell you a lot about the people you talked to."

"Okay. Well, shit." I muttered as I rubbed my forehead. I guess there's no hiding this from you. Okay, now, why is everyone terrified of me? Why are you happy that I'm not your Master?"

"Oh. It's simple. That guy was a prick." One whispered with a giddy simile on her face. "Do you know who I was before I was One?"

I shook my head. "No idea."

Of course. I don't know why she was asking.

"I don't either," she said, choking up with a laugh-sob hybrid. "I know I was someone. I'm sure I had a family, a mother and a father, but. Ever since graduation, I've only ever been One. I've only ever known Master."

This time, the tears coming to her eyes were not those of joy but heartbreak, and I couldn't help reaching out and resting my hand on her shoulder. She leaned her head and nuzzled into the back of it with a tenderness that melted my heart even further.

"If none of the other Numbered figured out that you weren't a master. Just seeing this would have given it away." She muttered as she rested her cheek on my hand. She reached up and placed her own hand on top of mine and squeezed it, preventing me from withdrawing it. "I've been a bit... Immune to the brainwashing and unable to see past the veneer of this place, but many haven't.

Some of the Numbered are true believers, and you are lucky that Nine was the one who woke you up and not Two or Five. Either would have killed you if they figured out who you were."

"Who are the Numbered?" I asked. "My servants?"

She snickered. "You could call us that. Concubines would be the polite way to phrase it."

I flinched. Brainwashed concubines. Wow. My previous self did seem like a prick.

"Okay, sooooo," I said, stretching out the word. "Now what?"

"Well," One said. "Let's make a deal."

I nodded. This is going to be rough. We both knew she held all the cards here. Assuming I didn't kill her, and I really didn't want to kill her.

"I want to live," she said. "Obviously, let's put that on the table right away. No killing me to keep me quiet," she said, smiling as if she knew 100% that I wouldn't do it. I suppose maybe she did. "But I also don't want you to die."

I grinned. "Okay, that seems like a good starting point. We both want to live."

"Yes. Negotiations. Common ground, wooo," she said, giving a small little cheer and pumping her fist in the air. I couldn't help but stretch my grin wider at her antics. How did she ever seem to be beaten down enough for her Master to think that she was truly his? I don't know, but the amount of joy this woman simply had in life baffled me.

"You are going to take a quick crash course on how to be Master, I suppose. And we'll have to fill you in on everything as quick as possible. That means that sometimes you're going to have to be alone with the other Numbered, and you're going to need to be able to act well enough to fool them."

I nodded. That made sense. She continued, "and unfortunately, you need to do that before tomorrow morning."