The Lampmaker Ch. 11

Ada gave Evie a grim smile. "Evie, I can tell why you are better with plants than people. Plants must be easy to understand compared to weirdo humans who have everything but still want more."

Ada started walking again and Evie followed. "Lacey was a gold digging stripper before Master took her. I looked up her history. She was a greedy, money grubbing whore who used men like ATMs and tossed them once the limit was reached. And now, being the head of the harem, that mentality is being magnified hundreds of times."

Ada looked around again. "I don't think she wants to hurt or destroy Master. She loves him and she is loyal to him. But she has a definite idea of what kind of Master he should be. Strong, arrogant, powerful, rich; just the kind of guys she would latch onto in her mortal life and manipulate. They were in charge, but they were influenced by a little Gold Digger named Lacey who used them to take her along. Master Rick is the ultimate whale, the ultimate score for a Gold Digger, and Lacey is the ultimate Gold Digger."

Evie frowned and thought. Ada was making some sense. Lacey had always been encouraging the "strong" Rick, and had worked very hard to keep the other personas under control. Evie had agreed with that, a multiple personality Master was bad after all. But she actually preferred the kinder Master. The one she had seen in her shop when they had first met had been one that had attracted her initially and sometimes when she was alone with Master on walks or having their private evenings the strong Master would seem to fade and the gentle kind Master would come out and they would make slow, soft love in the moonlight on the lush grass...

"Hey! Pay the fuck attention! Did you hear what I just said?" Ada said with a bit of rise in her voice.

"Oh, uh, no. Sorry, I was thinking about what you said. You are right, I have noted that she encourages the strong Master and very quickly intervenes should he change his personality."

Ada grumbled under her breath and said "Yes, and so does Lotus, Dominika, and Samantha. Samantha is another power hungry bitch who owes Master a lot but wants more, and Lotus and Dominika are old stripper friends of Lacey's. Notice how they ALWAYS side with her? Lacey is coordinating a clique to help her get in charge and remain in charge. Hell, look at Ali. I've spoken with some of the other older genies about him and I've been watching how Lacey interacts with him. I can't prove it because usually that program that cuts out recordings interferes, but I am pretty damn sure she helped his ass along the path towards drunkenness and has been taking over his powers along the way."

Evie blinked at that. "That is a terrible thing if true. Ali is a kind and wise man, but Lacey has been saying that his drinking is something he is having trouble controlling and she can't stop him."

Ada glanced around again and said very softly. "No, that's not exactly what she is saying. She is saying he has trouble with his drinking, but think about what she is saying about not being able to stop him. She never quite says that openly, she hints at it. She isn't lying, but she doesn't seem to be fully open about it. She says she has stopped him from going into the wine cellars, but did you ever hear her say she stopped Ali's slaves? Ali never goes to the cellars! He sends his slaves and Lacey knows this but doesn't do anything. Technically she can't order them, but she could tell Master and he could order them and you know he would do that. Instead she makes this seem like Ali is doing this all on his own and is a victim of his own desires, something that the strong Master dislikes."

Evie was now looking very concerned. "We need to tell Master this! We need to stop this!" she hissed and Ada shook her head.

"No, we don't have anything solid to go on. Just ideas and some odd observations and things that don't quite add up. Not enough to turn Master against his favorite genie, the one that has massive influence on the most dominant of his personas. We need evidence. REAL proof. Or we need to get the old Master Rick in charge."

"Why are you telling me this? What can I possibly do? Why not Nicole who is the captain of the guard or..."

"You're different. Master didn't bind you like he did me or Lacey. You serve Master as a lover and harem slave because you LIKE it. I like it too, cripes what woman wouldn't, but I was also made to. I noticed once on the cameras, while you were making some of that wine with Bridget, Lacey came in and ordered you and Bridget back to your lamps as the Mistress of the Harem. Bridget had to go, you just laughed at her. She doesn't have power over you like she does the rest of us."

Ada leaned in close. "I've seen Lacey turn Nicole, Bridget, Heather and Susan into babbling bimbos who only care about fucking Master with a simple command. She's done it once to me as well. One second I was working on Ali Baba and she and Master walk in and then next thing I know I'm naked, sweaty, and lying next to Master happily fucked, giggling, and snuggled up to him like I'm a teddy bear. Ali is rapidly becoming a non-player in the house and likely will get dumped in his lamp soon unless he sobers up. The only other person in this house right now that has any chance of standing up to Lacey is you. I don't think Lacey wants to try any plants on you given how you connect to them and she is rightly scared of what might happen if she does and you end up being immune or maybe the plants get mad and decide to go after her. If Lacey figures out I am suspicious, and she has some of those magical flowers or gives me some of your various wines, I'll probably be a giggling idiot in a few seconds. You might be the only chance we have to make sure Lacey doesn't gain full influence over Master and push him into doing something stupid."

Evie had that deer in the headlights look for a few seconds. And then her eyes hardened and she straightened up. "If this theory is true, we need evidence against Lacey. Can you get it? You have wired the house after all; can we not use your system and gather it?"

Ada shook her head. "I told you, someone has messed with me. As far as I know I could go running to them after this and spill the beans. For sure the AI and computer system I built is not something we can use or trust."

Evie frowned. They were walking in the gallery now and Evie had outdone herself with the floral and vines. Ada felt the whole room seem to almost shiver in fear and doubt. "Damn Evie! Can you stop it with the plants? Cripes the whole room just gave me a shiver."

Evie stopped. Ada looked at her and then blinked as Evie laughed and clapped her hands. The mood seemed to change. Ada looked around and suddenly felt like the room was in on a joke she wasn't. "What just happened?" she asked.

"I just had a wonderful idea, and the plants think so too. And I have another one for you. Come with me." Evie led Ada to the AV room. Samantha was already out front arranging the paparazzi so the room was clear. Evie went over to a pile of tech magazines that Ada had tossed about on her work bench.

"Samantha is always complaining about your sloppiness, and I came in here once with Lacey to see about it. I can recognize a work bench with everything in place, even if it seems like a heap. But that aside, I think maybe we need to be a bit, old school, in our solution." Evie said as she sorted through the magazines and then found one. She flipped through it to a page marked "Vintage Gear for the Collector" and with a smile pointed to part of the ad. Ada looked at it and then snorted.

"Damn girl! You have some sneakiness in you yet. Yeah, I can do this easy. Might take a bit though; have to order it in a way we won't get noticed. Hmmmmm." Ada said and Evie could see the wheels turning.

"Good, you handle this part. I'll take care of the other part."

"Other part? What's that?"

Evie smiled a very calculating smile that for just a split second reminded Ada of the one Lacey got on occasion and said nothing.

LATER THAT EVENING.

"Well Mr. Sanford, I must say you know how to throw a party. Better than most DC gatherings."

Rick smiled and sipped his wine and Lacey beamed on his arm. "Well, thank you Senator. I am so glad you could make it to my humble house and that you and your lovely companion (one of his aides, his wife was back in DC) are enjoying the party. I would like to speak with you later about a couple of items, but I need to finish the circulation and greet the rest of the guests. So until later."

Rick led Lacey on and greeted some more guests. Lacey hung on his arm and soaked up the praise that was being heaped on her and Master. She was dressed to kill and easily one of if not the most beautiful women at the party. Only the other genies came close, and arguably the only one who might be as good looking as her was Evie. Evie was dressed in her light blue costume, but what made her shine were the flowers. It was if the garden had given itself up for her and the blooms in her hair and wrapped around her neck, waist and wrists made her seem almost a living flower. Men and women both stopped and gaped as she walked by.

Lacey felt a tug of jealousy as she saw the reactions to Evie, but she consoled herself as she noted she had the same effect on people when she walked by on Rick's arm. "No matter. The Strong Master has been in charge for nearly two full weeks. And that Master loves me most. I think I won't have to be worried about Evie as a challenge soon."

Lacey grinned as she looked around at some of the very powerful people there. She winked at Dominika who was speaking to a very rich man who owned several major media companies. His date, a very nice looking model, appeared to be nearly frozen in place. She had a lovely sexy nurse costume on (sexy, but not really slutty), but her eyes appeared to glazed over and her smile frozen. Lacey could see that the man was completely enthralled with Dominika who was leaning in close and speaking quietly.

"Dominika will soon have him under her thrall. And then make that ditzy tart want to jump his bones for the rest of the night. And that will be one more servant for us as we build our empire." Lacey thought as Rick glided her through the crowd.

Lacey had done a lot of planning for this night. Aside from just the party itself, she had Samantha, Lotus, and Dominika set up with a list of targets to enthrall. Important people, rich people, connected people; quite the list and Lacey's plan would have them all in her pocket by the time the evening was done.

Ever since Rick had ordered her to entrance the entire strip club Lacey had been curious about how powerful her influence over mortals was. When she started testing the various items Evie and Bridget were making, she decided to expand on the tests and find out. And what she found out was both good and bad.

The good was that if she could work on one person at one time, they were complete putty in her hands. She could make them forget things, believe anything she told them, obey her without question, even think they were different people. But it had its limits.

Lacey had done some experimenting on some homeless people and had discovered what genies could do. She could completely enthrall the human mind and make the person a literal zombie; brainless, no will, no ability to think, just the ability to obey. She could do that to large numbers of people at once, and she could make it temporary or permanent. And when it was permanent, it was PERMANENT. Lacey had blanked several people's minds and had been completely unable to repair them. She suspected a wish from a genie would work, but nothing less.

While that was great, making a useful slave was much harder. Tinkering with memories and making people accept new realities and memories was difficult. For a simple command, such as "Bridget is now the head of the board", given to people who were happy to have it happen and already inclined to support her, it was relatively easy and pretty much everyone would accept it. People were also easier to program if they were drunk or on drugs as their minds defensiveness was lowered.

Complex memories or commands, or ones that went against the personality of the person, were hard to do. Lacey had tried to use simple commands, but she had found it led to all sorts of problems as people seemed to always try to find ways around it, even if they swore they were not. It was like trying to re-write code while making sure that the program was still functioning perfectly in its desired capacity, something she had picked up from Ada during a talk. Having a Senator under your thrall was good, but only if he could still be a functional Senator, not a mindless drone who could only say "Yes Master".

Worse was that the more "core" the memory, the harder it was to fully erase without damage. Something that was critical to a person's development couldn't be wiped clear, it had to be replaced. Otherwise, it was like deleting a part of your computer's operating system and then expecting it to keep functioning without crashing. And unless you completely blanked the memory, it would slowly return.

Lacey actually had secretly hidden several of the homeless she had tested her magic on in the dungeon. They were either brain-dead or raving lunatics. Doing manipulations of the mind was difficult, and Lacey was beginning to think they might need a specialist regardless of Master's condition in order to properly understand how to manipulate mortal minds.

Using some of the magical drinks and flowers did help the process, and Lacey was finding that you could slowly fine tune a slave over time. Her hope was to start the process tonight with some simple conditioning and then do repeat visits to groom the servant to be.

Lacey reflected on how simple the strip club had been. Everyone there had been drinking or doing drugs, and Lacey's commands had been simple (Kneel before Master and her for the club, and then for the owner and his friend to simply fuck off and go use another stripper). Even if some of the people remembered the next day they likely thought they had been drugged or more drunk than they thought. Even though it was a lot of people, the commands had been the same for everyone so it really wasn't that hard.

As of yet, she had been the one to entrance the most mortals at once, with Bridget and Heather both coming in second with fifteen each on one of the many social and society club boards Master had taken over. Simple commands, followed up by some one on one treatments, had been all that was required (Lacey did suspect that nearly all the groups involved had not liked Ms. Sellars to start with and that had likely made it easier). But she didn't know how many mortals she could actually entrance at one time.

Lacey had originally hoped to do a mass enslavement tonight during one of the shows like she had done at the club, but after thinking more and realizing she couldn't test her limits prior to the party and realizing how hard it was too properly program one human, she had opted for the one on one approach. Given careful instructions, her allies were carefully entrancing key people and programming them. Evie's wines and flowers were making everyone giddy and buzzed, which made it even easier. And to finish it Lacey made sure that each one of her targets would get some fun sex with either their date, or a woman of their choice.

So far, the plan was working wonderfully and Lacey had seen a couple of the targets move off to a more secluded area with their dates giggling along.

Lacey heard some laughter and smiled as she looked over at Ali and Julie. Ali was dressed as a convict and Julie was wearing a sexy police-woman outfit and they both had the look of a pair of happy drunks. Lacey tapped Rick's arm and nodded at them. Rick looked a bit grim for a bit and then sighed and smiled. "Well, Ali is enjoying himself at least and isn't stumbling drunk."

"Yes Master, true. But we should keep an eye on him. I fear that he is too far gone into his drink to be trusted anymore."

Rick nodded sadly. "I should have cut him off earlier, but I did want him to enjoy himself. Well, perhaps I need to keep him in his lamp after this party and let him dry out for a few weeks."

Lacey nodded with a hint of sadness while inside she was cackling with joy. "Yes Master, perhaps that is for the best. I'll enchant his slaves into an enchanted slumber so they won't miss him."

Rick nodded and led Lacey up to the staircase landing where he had taken her when he had first purchased the mansion. Rick looked over his party and smiled. Lacey snuggled up to him and felt his strength course through his body. "My Master, looking over the weak mortals enjoying themselves at OUR party in OUR house! THIS is what I have always deserved!" she thought.

Rick kissed her passionately and Lacey thought he was going to sweep her up and carry her off into the bedchamber then and there, but Rick controlled himself. He looked out again at all the rich and famous people laughing and dancing and grinned.

"I never thought I would be in this position Lacey. Never. God, I feel like a King! I love this feeling of power! All of these people coming here at my command. Coming here to ask me for my boon, for my money, for my permission!"

Rick's eyes started to get a bit wild looking and he gripped the balcony. Lacey stepped back a bit and blinked. "Master, are you well? You look a bit flushed..."

Rick turned and looked at her and Lacey gasped. Rick's eyes had a look of madness in them, and Lacey felt a surge of fear. "Master? Please calm down; let us take a walk in the garden for some air..."

"NO!" Rick shouted and the room grew silent as everyone looked up at him. Rick looked down at his guests and sneered. "How weak they are! How pathetic!" he thought. He felt strength and power flow through him. He glanced down and saw Heather in her green genie outfit and felt another surge. "A captain of finance, my slave!" He looked at Susan. "A brilliant lawyer, my slave! All of them my slaves! Who are these mere mortals to me?"

Rick laughed loudly and it was a madman's laughter. "Lady Lacey, my Genie Slaves! These mortals do not understand who they stand beneath. Make them understand. Bow to your Lord!"

A murmur ran through the crowd and Lacey looked about in a slight panic. "Master, please, you need..."

"Make them BOW slave!"

Lacey bowed her head. "As you command Master." She put her hands above her head and channeled her powers of enchantment. She noted the other genies were doing the same. She let her energy flow out into the crowd and sighed in relief as people stiffened and then dropped wordlessly to their knees with their heads bowed.

Lacey heard some sounds and then heard Samantha's voice flow over the speakers. "Mortals, you should bow to Lord Rick, he is your Master." And then began to repeat. Lacey felt her power was at its limit and she looked around and saw that in the gallery many people were not responding.

"Lacey, there are too many! We can't enchant them all!" Nicole cried out from by the Main Door. "The drivers and people out front are not affected!"

Lacey felt panic. She looked at Ali who appeared to be sobering up quickly and also using his hands. He shot her a look and shook his head no. There were simply too many in the Main Hall and the Gallery and out front. At most Lacey had only entranced maybe fifty odd people at the Strip Club, but there were over two thousand guests here along with hundreds of drivers and media. Lacey had never thought about how many mortals she could entrance at once, and now she realized just how limited her powers were.

"No, no, no, this will ruin everything! What can I do? Master! What do we do?"

Rick was laughing madly and then cut off. He looked lost for a few moments and then turned to Lacey. "Lacey! What is happening? What did I do?" He grasped his head and went down to his knees. "You are weak! No! This is wrong! I won't let you! Damn your foolish mercy!" he blabbered and Lacey realized he was having a breakdown.