"So tell me Rita, can you communicate with my daughter?" says Gladys to Rita while being dressed in an aquamarine casual dress. For some reason neither woman finds it strange that Gladys could fit in her usual clothes, in fact her body does not seem like she is recuperating from childbirth.
With that being said Glady's body certainly has certainly gone through some changes but all of them has been for the better, and about the same could be said about Rita even when her transformation was incomplete, at least she no longer needs those thick glasses and her cheeks are freckle free.
Truth be told, even after that grotesque seizure show, Gladys is feeling at the time a tinge of jealousy towards Rita. As her mother it was obvious she should be blessed by whatever powerful spirit inhabits inside her daughter but, on what merits a lowly servant like Rita deserves the lowest of blessings just after meeting her? Is it because Rita can use the lowest type of healing magic on herself or because she was fated to be Gladys personal attendant?
"...I don't know if this servant has gone crazy but I can hear a female voice inside my head ordering me according to the little miss wishes, and I can feel with every fiber of my being that it would not be wise to disobey or even doubt to obey." Responds Rita after a couple of seconds, she was actually expecting for the voice to order her to lie, but because nothing was conveyed she decides to responds as truthful as possible. For some reason she was convinced that the duchess would not only believe her but even comprehend the situation, maybe to the point of even explaining it to her.
"Mmm, I see. I will talk to the duke and inform him that from today onward you will only respond to me and Aurora, meanwhile ..." Gladys moves towards a beautiful metallic box, gently puts her finger over the lock and after an specific mana signal is exchanged the box opens by itself. "Put this pin over your clothes as a proof of your new status inside the manor, follow the instructions you receive from the voice in your head at the best of your abilities, do not give explanations to anyone of your actions", says Gladys and add in a whisper after some consideration "...not even the duke", "Do you understand Rita?" says Gladys while handing Rita the beautiful pin made of pink gold, onyx and ruby with the Greystone's coat of arms: a black tower covered in thorns with a beautiful red rose blooming at the front.
If Rita's emotions would not currently being suppressed by the parasitic AI in the lower part of her brain she would have felt extreme surprise from receiving a pin symbolizing the protection of the house of Greystone, reserved for specials agents of this household. It is customary for the Greystone women marrying into other households to be accompanied by a female servant extremely loyal to the bride to act as a bodyguard and maid.
However Gladys with her mousy character and lack of confidence was only able to attract a second rate maid to accompany her before moving to the Lionhearth manor, and after about a year she decided to dismiss that maid because her bad attitude towards the servants was causing for them to resent Gladys herself. So she finally set for using Bertha as her personal maid while storing the pin away.
"Thank you madam" says Rita while pinning the ornament over her maid clothes. She is aware that while her own family has been extremely royal to the Lionhearth for generations and accepting the pin is akin to swearing allegiance to the Greystone family, the only reason for her to wear the pin is to be able to act with independence without anyone asking too much questions. Right now she has no doubt that from this day onwards the reason for her existence will be to follow the orders from the beautiful female voice inside her head.
"I will feed Aurora now so you are excused. Meanwhile take a bath, I can see that parts of your skin are starting to peel off and it is disgusting. And prepare the bathtub with hot water for me and Aurora." says Gladys dismissively.
"Of course madam, just let me do something first", Rita walks out of the closet, takes a knife from the food cart and gets closer to Aurora. For a second Gladys thinks about stopping her but contains herself after confirming through her connection with Aurora that Rita was acting according to her wishes.
Rita uses the steak knife to cut her left hand, after which she uses her healing powers to heal herself. She is almost surprised to discover that instead of the painfully slow healing process along the span of 5 to 15 minutes she was expecting, the bleeding stops immediately and the injury fully heals in just a few seconds. Rita cleans the blood from her hand and the knife with a few smooth motions using a napkin and just after this illogical act comes another one even more illogical, she extends the knife to Aurora and the newborn baby extend her arm to touch the flat part of the knife with her small hand without injuring herself.
Rita raises her blouse, points the knife to her belly like searching carefully for a particular place and finally stabs herself with no hesitation, waits a few seconds, pulls out the knife with her right hand while bringing her left hand towards Aurora. Aurora extends her arm again and hold hands briefly with Rita, the servant's wound is instantly closed and a small bundle of cells are implanted in Rita's uterine wall.
Aurora has spend all the money she received from the data sent to her former world to buy the genetic blueprints of a special kind of parasite that devours and replace the uterus of a female to transform her into a baby-making machine capable of carrying indefinitely a 4 weeks embryo that could at any given moment receive the soul and adapt it genetic information accordingly to resurrect any person in a clone of the original body. That way as long as the persons dies within her area of influence or has a friendly soul-bound with Aurora (like Gladys) that person will be able to resurrect inside Rita's body as clone baby of itself. If everything goes according to plan the parasite should have grown and be operational in about a month, as the parasite grows the AI inside Rita's lower brain should be able to take actions directed by host AI inside Aurora's brain to completely block the pain from the parasite devouring her womb.
Rita cleans the blood on her belly and the knife with the same cloth napkin and then watches silently how the piece of cloth smeared with blood disappears almost instantly in a small flare. After that, Rita takes the cart where the food was delivered and exits the duchess room.
A couple of steps after leaving the room Rita finally escapes Aurora's area of influence and instantly falls to her knees, heavily panting and drenched in cold sweat. The voice can't reach her now, her emotions are no longer suppressed and the fine tuning of her brain to make her think or act as instructed is over. Right now she is subjected to two completely contradicting influences, while her mind is telling her to run away from that monster disguised as a baby, at the same time her body feels a craving for going back near her mistress, just like a drug addict craving for her fix. So she believes she has three choices: to do as told and go back to her mistress, to escape while suffering a horrible abstinence syndrome and probably be hunted as a beast to keep her silent, and finally to take her own life and escape that monster through death.
What Rita doesn't know is that the AI would prevent her from harming herself and if she doesn't go back the parasite devouring her uterus would bring her enormous pain, grow without limit until eventually take over her whole body and then she will come back to Aurora as a mindless zombie. That would be pitiful, but Aurora was willing to bet that the pet would come back to her mistress after leaving the cage.
Gladys waits in bed while Aurora takes a nap in her arms, she has finished feeding Aurora almost an hour ago and is starting to get impatient because Rita hasn't come back to inform her that the bathtub is ready, and with the incident from yesterday the number of servants is particularly low so no one else has come so far to attend her needs.
"What's taking her so long?" murmurs Gladys for the third time when the door finally opens, Rita enters the room looking as stoic as when she left but somehow a lot more pretty, her skin looks fair and spotless and her dark brown hair is silky and beautiful. After advancing a few steps she informs the impatient duchess, who is clearly about to admonish her, "The bathtub is ready madam, sorry about the delay". Rita unconsciously gives a half-smile to the annoyance of the duchess after the mechanical female voice in her head tells her "Good girl."